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Another story, though far less time-consuming and a little under half the length of Jail Block Bars (so I can post it here!). Unlike that story, this one is a complete original I decided to muster, though I can't rightly say it was from osmosis. I'd like to thank Eruprior for the inspirational art.
Elden Ring, its characters, locations, etc. belong to FromSoft, but the story is all me, baby~
Without further adieu, please enjoy.
by bestbetrolling
Unalloyed Gold Lamp
An unalloyed gold lamp, its warm surface etched with an unknown rune on one side.
Outer gods interested in the Lands Between seek to direct both body and mind, so a forgotten people sought to free themselves of both. At the hour of completion, they relented in fear.
Who save for the most brazen, after all, would forsake one unbending manacle for another?
Rain droplets tapped against the smudged glass, each window marred by time’s uncountable passage. As the aged tower groaned from the stormy night winds that blew in from the trackless sea into Liurnia’s highlands, the cozy cloister interior gleamed with lunar light. Books, candles, strange instruments from academies not far away; all glittered in refracted moonlight.
How long had it been since you had stumbled upon this hideaway for royalty? This den of conspirators?
Your breath caught the chillness of the night. Spare motes of dust descended around you, falling from accrued tomes wedged atop damp shelves. At the center of this room and your attention, a huddled mass of hemp cloth pale as snow shifted to reveal a porcelain white face flanked by a ghostly mirror. From her proctor’s chair, the living doll rested her four hands in her lap with dignified patience, your Lady awaiting your report.
Your mind returned to the task of explaining your expedition; the constant thrum of rain muted your conversation into quiet gravitas. As you finished, Ranni appeared pleased.
“My thanks, Tarnished. Your service, despite its brevity, has proven to be that of a true ally. Though your motives were a passing oddity, I have come to realize that your loyalty withstands duty and trial both.”
She extended two down-turned hands, bequeathing a precious stone for your deeds. Raising the brim of her massive hat, the witch’s eyes, both real and spectral, stared as you reached into your pouch.
>> Show the Unalloyed Gold Lamp
As Ranni gazed upon the object you chanced upon from your recounted mission into the underground crevices beneath the Lands Between, her immovable face stiffened with an indignant warning.
“Know this, Tarnished; my destiny hath been stitched upon the very stars. I have already dislodged myself of the Greater Will by Destined Death itself, and I will not be swayed from the fate I shall see done. Such an object would…unless, you do not mean this for myself? But then why proffer-,” she paused, then deflated with somber realization. Titling forward, her hat brim obscured her eyes once more.
“Shall I dawn the mantle of the moon and stars, only to discard those esteems I hold dear? As my mother and mentor both nurtured: a truly distant isolation and erudition, a cold light to guide those who seek their own destiny, without ancient counsel or duty-bound shadows.”
>> And without me?
Ranni’s reaffixed to you, her artificial facade vacating its spirits momentarily in deep thought. In such a pivotal instance, your words froze the witch’s tower in recollective silence.
“No,” she finally spoke up, life and spirit returning to her form. “No, I would not cast you aside save great consideration. Given what you have secured me in arraying my destiny, it would not be right; not be just to one so dear.”
Ranni paused. Even as her face struggled to show it, an ephemeral smirk crept into her voice.
“Hm. Your blunt actions belie your mercy, Tarnished. A powerful, useful object you have presented to me. I command you to speak with Iji. His knowledge on forgotten things should prove illuminating to whatever forging of fate you might have in mind.”
A last pause.
“...oh Blaidd; I pray you shirk your golden shackles.”
Eternal Service
A mighty rune abandoned in caverns deep. Used to supplant the inevitable and ordained.
Foreseeing their conquest by the Greater Will, a forgotten people forged a rune capable of circumventing their fate. But the rune was useless to them, as it subsumed their life into elemental flair without form or purpose.
Only fools invoked Eternal Service, freeing them from the Golden Order at the cost of body and fate. Those who refused were conquered, as was foretold.
Days later and after many painful attempts into the sunless depths, you returned to the illusory ruin threshold on the abandoned road leading to Caria Manor. The overgrown path bending beneath your steps, you climbed the shallow ridge, stopping just short of a massive slab of iron and stone. With a hammer far larger than any human resting on its side, a withered husk of a giantkin, his shrouded face enraptured by a massive tome, thumbed at a page edge and grunted in pleased solitude. Calling to the War Counselor, his headdress jangled like cooking pans as he peeled the book away to look down at you.
“Ah, returned in one piece, have we? Did you locate that which we discussed?”
>> Show the Eternal Service rune
As the rune flickered dimly in your hand, the troll leaned over his anvil to catch a closer glance. Though his eyes vanished in the shadows underneath his reflective helm, the jingle of metal beads signaled his nod of agreement.
“Yes, it is quite plain here. This is, indeed, the Eternal Service rune. I shan’t ask what acts you committed to obtain such a thing, lost though it may have been in corners hidden from the Erdtree’s subsuming light. On behalf of Lady Ranni, let me thank you for your kind service. She now prepares for her journey, but I know that her thanks would be paramount given the nature of your task.”
Iji’s wide knuckles twitched with vigor as he squeezed his hammer’s grip. Setting his mighty book onto his lap, he cupped his massive palm to you.
“Grant to me both rune and lamp, and I shall set to work upon that which will spare Blaidd a fate worse than death: betrayal.”
Your spoils granted, Iji set to work, setting both items together before striking them with a troll’s strength. In spite of his wilted appearance, his arms flexed with enough muscle to fell a castle’s wall. Golden sparks flaring, he continued speaking, his gravelly voice never pausing or seeking breath between each overwhelming strike.
“I had anticipated a grim fate for Blaidd. One I felt-...nary a word for that now. I hope that this rune performs as well as legend portends. Even if not, well…it would save him from heartbreak.”
A heavy thrum echoed forth from the lamp, the rune now etched into half of its surface. Small as a thimble between the troll’s fingers, Iji plucked the object, holding it out to you. As you cupped the lamp, its surface now radiated with both magic and heat, its new engraved rune flowing with a notable energy.
“Take it, and listen carefully. Blaidd must mark the vessel with his very soul. The process might very well unmake him, if he agrees to it at all. But know, Tarnished, that whether Blaidd lives or dies: it is a boon for Lady Ranni. And none matter more than our Lady’s needs.”
With the artifact in your possession, you sour slightly at the troll tactician. Iji’s plans, square and neat upon their surface, faltered in matters of character and will. He failed to measure your worth, and now, you prayed, you hoped he mismeasured Blaidd’s as well. Still, you nodded in agreement, and Iji took it as confirmation enough.
Handiwork complete, the troll leisurely slammed his hammer back into its resting spot, the soil sending a dusty shockwave out from the tool’s titanic impact. Hands dipping into his lap, he cupped his book up to his chest once more, his reading set to resume.
“He shall be beyond the Greater Will’s pervasive reach, in one form or another. I have imprisoned him in a lonely gaol upon a hill in Limgrave. I safeguarded for Lady Ranni’s ascent to occur without Blaidd’s interference once her absence inevitably drove him to madness. But…no, nothing left to be said on that now. Go. Free Blaidd from his cruel fate, no matter what it takes. For our Lady.”
Knowing your next mission, you set the object in your sack and began your trek through the Lands Between in search of a shadow. Leaving Iji’s side, you could swear you heard a quivering of regret.
“Blaidd, I’m sorry for what I have done; but I think, should you survive, you standing at Lady Ranni’s side without me is compensation enough.”
Unfilled Vessel
An unalloyed gold lamp that has absorbed the Eternal Service rune.
Crafted to trade one fate for another, the surface enables another to etch their personal rune, but in so doing, they enter into a service without end.
When coursed to tragedy, a lamentable soul might abandon all they are to finally be free of their destiny, but in so doing, only they might say if tragedy hounds their new fate.
Howls of anguish and pain echoed over Limgrave’s golden skies, the half-wolf heaving with pain all the while. A beacon of woe, piercing the ocean air that swept through across the switchgrass plains. Confused. Agonized. Pleading.
No simple gesture could call him forth now, you lamented.
Standing atop the ringed stones of the fall, your feet hummed with energy. Phantom purple light, a familiar sight, told you what you already knew: a prisoner existed within the spiritual gaol, beyond sight and touch. Extending your hand, you felt a connection to the figure within.
"Huh?"
The gruff voice clasped shut mid-howl, stupefied and alarmed.
"Oi? Who's there?" Blaidd's request stirred with meek yet flustered earnesty. "Oh, it's you... It's me, Blaidd.”
You lowered your hand, stepping closer to the epicenter of the gaol's portal. A solitary funnel of wispy flame danced along the stone, granting fleeting outlines of a friendly shadow.
"Old Iji trapped me here. Told me I'd bring nought but bale to Lady Ranni. But there's no chance that could happen. I'm part of her being. Her very shadow; I thought old Iji knew as much.”
The half-wolf’s tone sombered.
“Honestly, I don't know what's going on anymore...”
You knelt, trailing your fingertips through the frail light. Rather than enter, you palmed the magic and pulled, dispelling the arcane lock. Like mist carried on the wind, a soft chill rolled over the hillside, extinguishing the flame. From the dying fire, the phantom took flesh, swelling and solidifying until he towered a head and a half above you. Adorned in dark silver armor and faded brown leathers, the form kept a massive sword over his shoulder like a piece of lumber, the gilded hilt held in a single gauntlet. A deep blue cloak lined with gray fur mixed with a wolf’s head, his own hide ashen and cold: a true retinue to Ranni. The mist clearing, you stood before the conjured visage of Blaidd, Ranni’s sworn shadow and your companion in arms.
Freed from his prison, the half-wolf shook his head once, swept back hair trailing against his greatsword’s flat. Even with his furred coat and layered armor, Blaidd’s weapon, the dark metal permanently chilled by an invisible frost, sent chills down his back.
“My thanks, friend.”
Exhaling with agitation, he looked past the ridge of his breastplate to make eye contact with you, a lupine smirk upon his face. Once a distant fiend screeching in the woods, your journeys with Blaidd gleaned his tells and ticks. Even in the aftermath of near death at Radahn’s festival, his face smoothed into a smug revelry of brotherhood: one warrior sharing the moment of victory and common cause with another. A warmth of family and companionship, long neglected to the lone shadow. Blaidd’s orchid irises quaked as he recalled his task, tearing himself from his pleased gaze before glancing to the horizon.
“I'm going to see mistress Ranni, now. I don't know what came over old Iji,” he paused to consider something, “but even if the odds are slim, I need to check the mistress is safe. Now, Ranni can finally set in motion the fight against her fate she's dreamt of for so long.”
The wolf placed his free hand on your shoulder, granting you a polite jostle and soft pet. Before he took another step, you interjected.
>> I have something to show you...
Blaidd flashed his canines, his lips tugging back in unfounded anger. That joyous thanks faltered, his purple irises tinting with red and gold like wine through water. It lasted only a brief moment, but you tensed, his animosity pointed directly at you. Just as swiftly as he bared his teeth, he relented, the glint and flare vanishing from his eyes. The peppy fighter blinked, shifting the snarl to a smile in an attempt to shake off the undue aggression that seized him so swiftly.
"Wait? What rightly stalls...”
He breathed deeply, the sound of metal and leather buckling around his expanding chest.
"Forgive me; I have levied great offense against you. ‘Tis unbecoming to a fellow retainer. Though time demands haste, I cannot rightly say you would waylay me without ample cause."
He stepped along the stone and grass patchwork, armor clanging with his mighty footfalls. Even shouldering his blade, the wolf adjusted its position only once with a lone grip.
“Speak plain; what do you wish to impart?”
>> Show lamp
You reach into your pouch, revealing the vessel in one hand. Blaidd shakes his head, trying once more to clear his mind.
“Hm? A trinket? I know not...” he paused. “That smell and handiwork. Old Iji shaped this, aye?”
Chuckling in fond recollection, the half-wolf closed his eyes.
“I’d have thought he laid his days of gold tempering behind him. But if he crafted you such an object, no doubt it is of some import.” His ear twitched as he gazed down at you, his gray sleet muzzle resting atop the embossed collar on his steel breastplate. “Is it to aid Ranni? I know only of dim plans and cooed assurances of her ascension’s true path... But you grant it to her shadow. Why? For what reason could...unless you intend for me to have it?”
You nodded, though Blaidd narrowed his gaze.
“Forgive my incredulity; after Iji’s daft need to imprison me, I’m not-...”
He glanced at your hands, nostrils flaring. Still extending the lamp, you allowed him to catch all its opulent glory.
“Still and all, I think the stars would spare me two japes in such a time. After all; you wouldn’t free me just to play such tricks, would you?”
He chortled with a somber but gleeful “heh.”
“A gift for me, then. Not since my coat have I inherited as thus.”
Leaning over, Blaidd’s sword stretched further into the star-filled skies, the solemn light of the moon and Erdtree casting the gaol hill in calm colors. Sniffing at the offering, he cocked his head.
"Unalloyed gold? Hmm, can't say I know too much about it, but I do know Iji wanted some for his helm, that flashy thing. And such a strange mark writ upon it as well,” Blaidd grazed the lamp’s surface, his covered claws tapping against the soft metal.
>> Ranni wishes you to write your rune upon it
Blaidd blinked, a gasp caught in the back of his throat. A hundred questions danced along Blaidd’s irises as they shifted and quaked, the wolf searching himself for the multitude of answers.
“Lady Ranni entrusted you with this task? I feel the sting of neglect that she would not beseech me herself.”
The words settled like poison in the wolf’s stomach.
“No, there would need be great cause for events to unfold thus. Though why didn’t she...”
Another hard question with no resolve; Blaidd’s cheeks creased, smooshing his eyes in pain and neglect.
>> Ranni feared your death
The wolf stood tall, the shadow looming larger than your own.
“Many have tried to kill me; to kill Ranni. Assassins, traitors, mercenaries; all faltered before her pale moonlight and her unflagging shadow. But-...you say she feared my death?”
He gazed skyward, the stars awash with perpetual golden twilight.
“I ask for little, but it fills my heart to know Ranni spared such a thought for me. A brother so undeserved in affairs of import. I take it Iji knew too?”
His eyes welled up, coating the tip of his furred cheeks.
“I...I don’t understand. I only wished to protect Ranni. To see her fate brought to fruition. A dark and somber night, for all; free from godly affairs and damnable decrees.”
Lips curling into a frown, he snorted.
“But I see now why she would request you to do this. This...might destroy me. Forever. A shadow undone.”
You nod once.
Blaidd stood silent. Searching. Dreading. Realizing.
His soul struggled along currents of golden obedience and chilled love. And he found, in the depths of himself, an answer. His answer. Through gritted teeth, he glowered at the meager trinket in your grasp, spying his sour reflection on its unblemished surface.
“I will never let myself be apart from Ranni. I’m part of her very being.”
He resettled his hand atop the lamp, a flash of gold magic sparking from his eyes. Slavering with strained effort, he bared his fangs.
“And if this is what it takes, I shall endure it! Until death or fate’s decree! For Ranni!”
Locking his jaw and narrowing his vision, Blaidd focused upon the vacant half of the gilded vessel even as his body revolted against the act. His will, destined to yield in time to a madness spiraling forth from grace, but with action and alacrity, he overcame it.
Sparks of light, kin to the countless motes that fluttered through the air of the Lands Between, expelled from Blaidd‘s body into the air. Like tumbling grains of sand, the flecks emanated outward, flowing like a swelling hurricane. The mark of the Greater Will, golden order bound into Blaidd’s flesh, pulsed outward, expunged in great waves of graceful warmth: a far cry from chilled serenity he yearned to be company with.
As the light piqued, a dark swirl of shadow writhed from his leather-bound palm. Wispy, prodding, and struggling against an invisible current. These tendrils bound and roiled over the lamp, clasping it like umbral vines. With a blinding flash, the last motes of gold abated, staggering the wolf as he shuddered to one knee. Impacting the ground with a heavy clamor, his sword chipped the goal’s circular stones as he lost his grip.
The wolf labored for breath, hand still upon the vessel. You both froze, unsure of the ritual’s success. Trepidation mounting, Blaidd’s grip shook as he retracted his massive gauntlet from the lamp, revealing a spiraling etching of a strange rune yet unseen. The concave depression pooled with the darkness of a night sky, shifting like soot trapped within furnace pipes. Eyelevel from his kneeling position, his eyes welled up with tears.
“The cold. That deathly chill. Frost’s discomfort is...abated. You wily soul, I-”
Your hands around the lamp tinged with a chill: a familiar bite to those stormy nights in a princess’ tower. The gold object hummed and vibrated as Blaidd’s rune doubled its swirling might. Even with thanks in his mouth and a smile of relief upon his muzzle, the wolf noted that the ritual had not yet concluded.
“The stars of my fate have shifted. I can feel...”
Rising from his knee, the warrior blinked, eyes dilating with numbing weakness. He stumbled, shooting for support as his toes failed to clear a step. In an instant, a hefty part of the towering wolf’s weight leaned against you before he righted himself. His breathing resumed, but rather than a warm rasp, he exhaled noticeable fumes of black: a strange miasma, as if exhaling in a thick fog.
Blaidd struggled for words, his eyes glued to yours as he tried righting his back. He growled and whined, fighting off some descending syncope. Even as he ground his teeth and tensed his muscles, the hand on your shoulder meekly squeezed. More half-words trailed past his lips as he muttered.
“My ire...lighter than...ill...I can’t...blade...apologies...”
Blaidd bent at the hip, vainly attempting to rearm himself with his royal greatsword. Fingers twiddling in his addled state, both you and him noticed a peculiar sight.
Seeping from the various bridges and overlapping sections of armor and cloth, familiar spools of shadow snaked their way free like smoke from a burning house. Slow, steady, but constant, the shadow wiggled across the air between you before slipping inside the lamp’s nozzle and disappearing to the cavity within. Blaidd’s breath sputtered, the strange miasma growing thicker and more consistent; a similar consistency to the fumes pouring from his arms and legs.
Realizing his vanity, Blaidd stopped trying to retrieve his blade. Instead, he held his limp wrist up to his muzzle, his lips tugged into sedated concern. Alarmed by the strange darkness spilling from his body, the source of the mysterious vapor became clear. The heavy digits present within his gloved gauntlet, bound to protect both bone and nail, creased with wrinkles. Like a balloon, the wolf warrior’s hand shriveled, the glove collapsing along the length. Finger-tips. Joint. Joints. Knuckles. In flopping segments, the wolf’s hand seemed to sift away like falling sand.
Eyes awash with uncertainty, he flubbed once more to you, his breathing taking more and more effort.
“Was this...the end...free...no pain...”
Blaidd’s weight resting on your shoulder lessened. Glancing at the wolf’s grip, his other hand, used for support, creased with lax leather. The jingle of loosening buckles joined the wolf’s pleading words, and though the broad shape of the half-wolf’s plate held his chest and greaves, the comforting cloak and cushioning cloth that hid his furred frame folded inward, absent his towering figure. His head, ever an imposing lupine visage, dissolved at the edges, the smoke pooling of his mouth joined by a halo of darkness. The half-wolf title appeared quite literal, only a fraction of ear, segments of a snout, and one eye surviving the final moments of this umbral unraveling. He beseeched you one last time, praying it wouldn’t be the last.
“Should I...see to...oh Ranni...”
Blaidd’s tenuous grip on your shoulder came undone, his gauntlet fingers sliding free. The leather straps holding for only a few seconds, the empty gloves swung before slipping free of their tight latches. The metal gear clanked against the dirt, joined by a quivering of paneled greaves that banged like shingles in the wind. Blaidd sighed and shut his last remaining eye, his head vanishing in a final trail of dark smoke.
Headless and handless, the turtle shell of his breastplate wavered as darkness continued funneling out of the armor’s neck. A soft ping echoed along the increasingly vacant interior as Blaidd’s signature cape, a gift to stave off the cold, slid free and pooled at the phantom’s heel. His sleeves, once filled with arms capable of lifting his mighty greatsword, batted against the quivering breastplate, listless and idle. Giving up the ghost, the armor spewed one last column of shadow. In loud succession, the leather boots folded beneath metal greaves and a puff of undergarment. The breastplate, capable of withstanding strikes from assassins with ease, slammed against the adjoining metal in a hollow clasp of thunder that rang for seconds on end. The careful weave of leather adjoining the protective plate wiggled and wheezed before sliding into inertia.
Vacant threads, large as a tent and odorous as a bear, laid motionless upon the cobble surface of the evergaol’s exterior. Surely an easier way to acquire armor, but the result laid apparent: Blaidd, in form and soul, vanished into shadowed air.
The lamp in your hand frosted over once, chilling the surrounding grass and segments of the wolf’s shirked armor with creeping ice. You touched Blaidd’s rune, still fuming with darkness, and as if answering some unspoken call, he answered.
In a far more elegant exit than entrance, a snaking blot of smoke, black as coal, swirled out of the spout in a constant fume. The narrow stream ballooned outward quickly from a narrow inch to an increasingly massive cloud. The smoke darkened as it centered itself, creating a window into a starless night sky. And from that void, a thrilled voice, charged by adrenaline and joy, called out.
“...is this...I feel it. The unmoored enthrall of it. The lamp you hold. As if I could streak across the night sky without a care.”
The smoke solidified in parts and portions: teeth like flowing stars, a barren arm ripe with fur and muscle, and the giddy quiver of a barren chest that bled into the surrounding smoke. The form never materialized below some imaginary line at the hips, the rest of the figure trailing back to the lamp in your hand, but with a final chortle, a pair of lilac irises flashed in the dark. Blaidd, returned to some manner of life, glanced down at his patchwork and naked body.
“Oi, this ain’t exactly an easy sensation. Passing strange, truly. I shan’t consider how I’d handle my blade thus.”
Blaidd stopped, inhaling to stave off the tears forming in his eyes. Bits of frost drifted from his caruncles like weightless tears, joining the dizzying golden motes that continued to pepper Limgrave’s night.
“I feel as if I am forever within this state. A shadow truer than stalking or following. But...it is for Ranni, I shall endure.”
Still an imposing figure even without legs or armor, the half-wolf torso drifted down to your level. You bowed, the lamp resting against your chest. In recognition, Blaidd returned the gesture.
“I owe you…more than my life. My new-...brother-in-law, I suppose. Strange how fate’s wended to this twist, isn’t it?”
His smirk perpetually dissolved at the edges, his ethereal outline folding from dark gray to stormy blue to smokey black.
“I knew from the moment we met that we’d be right as rain. And after all you’ve done for Ranni, for me, I think I need to start calling you by proper titles. My Lord; seek a crown and adjoin to my sister’s mantle. From shadow to incarnate, I shall never stray from her side. Nor yours. Sit upon the Elden Throne, so that I might serve you both in the age to come. Now unto the moon’s eternity.”
And with that, the mighty half-wolf Blaidd dispersed, retreating to the lamp within your grasp. You scooped up the vacant equipment: spoils best acquired with love and care than a tragic brawl.
The Lands Between still held many mysteries, but you knew by the end, you would have at least one new friend to share the dawn of a new age with.
Blaidd’s Vessel
An unalloyed gold lamp housing Blaidd. Marked with the wolf brother’s personal rune and Eternal Service.
When the Golden Order decreed his obedience from birth to death, a worrying witch sought to free her childhood companion at a consort’s request.
And so the shadow became night rather than fade without golden light.
Elden Ring, its characters, locations, etc. belong to FromSoft, but the story is all me, baby~
Without further adieu, please enjoy.
Freeing a Shadow
by bestbetrolling
Unalloyed Gold Lamp
An unalloyed gold lamp, its warm surface etched with an unknown rune on one side.
Outer gods interested in the Lands Between seek to direct both body and mind, so a forgotten people sought to free themselves of both. At the hour of completion, they relented in fear.
Who save for the most brazen, after all, would forsake one unbending manacle for another?
Rain droplets tapped against the smudged glass, each window marred by time’s uncountable passage. As the aged tower groaned from the stormy night winds that blew in from the trackless sea into Liurnia’s highlands, the cozy cloister interior gleamed with lunar light. Books, candles, strange instruments from academies not far away; all glittered in refracted moonlight.
How long had it been since you had stumbled upon this hideaway for royalty? This den of conspirators?
Your breath caught the chillness of the night. Spare motes of dust descended around you, falling from accrued tomes wedged atop damp shelves. At the center of this room and your attention, a huddled mass of hemp cloth pale as snow shifted to reveal a porcelain white face flanked by a ghostly mirror. From her proctor’s chair, the living doll rested her four hands in her lap with dignified patience, your Lady awaiting your report.
Your mind returned to the task of explaining your expedition; the constant thrum of rain muted your conversation into quiet gravitas. As you finished, Ranni appeared pleased.
“My thanks, Tarnished. Your service, despite its brevity, has proven to be that of a true ally. Though your motives were a passing oddity, I have come to realize that your loyalty withstands duty and trial both.”
She extended two down-turned hands, bequeathing a precious stone for your deeds. Raising the brim of her massive hat, the witch’s eyes, both real and spectral, stared as you reached into your pouch.
>> Show the Unalloyed Gold Lamp
As Ranni gazed upon the object you chanced upon from your recounted mission into the underground crevices beneath the Lands Between, her immovable face stiffened with an indignant warning.
“Know this, Tarnished; my destiny hath been stitched upon the very stars. I have already dislodged myself of the Greater Will by Destined Death itself, and I will not be swayed from the fate I shall see done. Such an object would…unless, you do not mean this for myself? But then why proffer-,” she paused, then deflated with somber realization. Titling forward, her hat brim obscured her eyes once more.
“Shall I dawn the mantle of the moon and stars, only to discard those esteems I hold dear? As my mother and mentor both nurtured: a truly distant isolation and erudition, a cold light to guide those who seek their own destiny, without ancient counsel or duty-bound shadows.”
>> And without me?
Ranni’s reaffixed to you, her artificial facade vacating its spirits momentarily in deep thought. In such a pivotal instance, your words froze the witch’s tower in recollective silence.
“No,” she finally spoke up, life and spirit returning to her form. “No, I would not cast you aside save great consideration. Given what you have secured me in arraying my destiny, it would not be right; not be just to one so dear.”
Ranni paused. Even as her face struggled to show it, an ephemeral smirk crept into her voice.
“Hm. Your blunt actions belie your mercy, Tarnished. A powerful, useful object you have presented to me. I command you to speak with Iji. His knowledge on forgotten things should prove illuminating to whatever forging of fate you might have in mind.”
A last pause.
“...oh Blaidd; I pray you shirk your golden shackles.”
Eternal Service
A mighty rune abandoned in caverns deep. Used to supplant the inevitable and ordained.
Foreseeing their conquest by the Greater Will, a forgotten people forged a rune capable of circumventing their fate. But the rune was useless to them, as it subsumed their life into elemental flair without form or purpose.
Only fools invoked Eternal Service, freeing them from the Golden Order at the cost of body and fate. Those who refused were conquered, as was foretold.
Days later and after many painful attempts into the sunless depths, you returned to the illusory ruin threshold on the abandoned road leading to Caria Manor. The overgrown path bending beneath your steps, you climbed the shallow ridge, stopping just short of a massive slab of iron and stone. With a hammer far larger than any human resting on its side, a withered husk of a giantkin, his shrouded face enraptured by a massive tome, thumbed at a page edge and grunted in pleased solitude. Calling to the War Counselor, his headdress jangled like cooking pans as he peeled the book away to look down at you.
“Ah, returned in one piece, have we? Did you locate that which we discussed?”
>> Show the Eternal Service rune
As the rune flickered dimly in your hand, the troll leaned over his anvil to catch a closer glance. Though his eyes vanished in the shadows underneath his reflective helm, the jingle of metal beads signaled his nod of agreement.
“Yes, it is quite plain here. This is, indeed, the Eternal Service rune. I shan’t ask what acts you committed to obtain such a thing, lost though it may have been in corners hidden from the Erdtree’s subsuming light. On behalf of Lady Ranni, let me thank you for your kind service. She now prepares for her journey, but I know that her thanks would be paramount given the nature of your task.”
Iji’s wide knuckles twitched with vigor as he squeezed his hammer’s grip. Setting his mighty book onto his lap, he cupped his massive palm to you.
“Grant to me both rune and lamp, and I shall set to work upon that which will spare Blaidd a fate worse than death: betrayal.”
Your spoils granted, Iji set to work, setting both items together before striking them with a troll’s strength. In spite of his wilted appearance, his arms flexed with enough muscle to fell a castle’s wall. Golden sparks flaring, he continued speaking, his gravelly voice never pausing or seeking breath between each overwhelming strike.
“I had anticipated a grim fate for Blaidd. One I felt-...nary a word for that now. I hope that this rune performs as well as legend portends. Even if not, well…it would save him from heartbreak.”
A heavy thrum echoed forth from the lamp, the rune now etched into half of its surface. Small as a thimble between the troll’s fingers, Iji plucked the object, holding it out to you. As you cupped the lamp, its surface now radiated with both magic and heat, its new engraved rune flowing with a notable energy.
“Take it, and listen carefully. Blaidd must mark the vessel with his very soul. The process might very well unmake him, if he agrees to it at all. But know, Tarnished, that whether Blaidd lives or dies: it is a boon for Lady Ranni. And none matter more than our Lady’s needs.”
With the artifact in your possession, you sour slightly at the troll tactician. Iji’s plans, square and neat upon their surface, faltered in matters of character and will. He failed to measure your worth, and now, you prayed, you hoped he mismeasured Blaidd’s as well. Still, you nodded in agreement, and Iji took it as confirmation enough.
Handiwork complete, the troll leisurely slammed his hammer back into its resting spot, the soil sending a dusty shockwave out from the tool’s titanic impact. Hands dipping into his lap, he cupped his book up to his chest once more, his reading set to resume.
“He shall be beyond the Greater Will’s pervasive reach, in one form or another. I have imprisoned him in a lonely gaol upon a hill in Limgrave. I safeguarded for Lady Ranni’s ascent to occur without Blaidd’s interference once her absence inevitably drove him to madness. But…no, nothing left to be said on that now. Go. Free Blaidd from his cruel fate, no matter what it takes. For our Lady.”
Knowing your next mission, you set the object in your sack and began your trek through the Lands Between in search of a shadow. Leaving Iji’s side, you could swear you heard a quivering of regret.
“Blaidd, I’m sorry for what I have done; but I think, should you survive, you standing at Lady Ranni’s side without me is compensation enough.”
Unfilled Vessel
An unalloyed gold lamp that has absorbed the Eternal Service rune.
Crafted to trade one fate for another, the surface enables another to etch their personal rune, but in so doing, they enter into a service without end.
When coursed to tragedy, a lamentable soul might abandon all they are to finally be free of their destiny, but in so doing, only they might say if tragedy hounds their new fate.
Howls of anguish and pain echoed over Limgrave’s golden skies, the half-wolf heaving with pain all the while. A beacon of woe, piercing the ocean air that swept through across the switchgrass plains. Confused. Agonized. Pleading.
No simple gesture could call him forth now, you lamented.
Standing atop the ringed stones of the fall, your feet hummed with energy. Phantom purple light, a familiar sight, told you what you already knew: a prisoner existed within the spiritual gaol, beyond sight and touch. Extending your hand, you felt a connection to the figure within.
"Huh?"
The gruff voice clasped shut mid-howl, stupefied and alarmed.
"Oi? Who's there?" Blaidd's request stirred with meek yet flustered earnesty. "Oh, it's you... It's me, Blaidd.”
You lowered your hand, stepping closer to the epicenter of the gaol's portal. A solitary funnel of wispy flame danced along the stone, granting fleeting outlines of a friendly shadow.
"Old Iji trapped me here. Told me I'd bring nought but bale to Lady Ranni. But there's no chance that could happen. I'm part of her being. Her very shadow; I thought old Iji knew as much.”
The half-wolf’s tone sombered.
“Honestly, I don't know what's going on anymore...”
You knelt, trailing your fingertips through the frail light. Rather than enter, you palmed the magic and pulled, dispelling the arcane lock. Like mist carried on the wind, a soft chill rolled over the hillside, extinguishing the flame. From the dying fire, the phantom took flesh, swelling and solidifying until he towered a head and a half above you. Adorned in dark silver armor and faded brown leathers, the form kept a massive sword over his shoulder like a piece of lumber, the gilded hilt held in a single gauntlet. A deep blue cloak lined with gray fur mixed with a wolf’s head, his own hide ashen and cold: a true retinue to Ranni. The mist clearing, you stood before the conjured visage of Blaidd, Ranni’s sworn shadow and your companion in arms.
Freed from his prison, the half-wolf shook his head once, swept back hair trailing against his greatsword’s flat. Even with his furred coat and layered armor, Blaidd’s weapon, the dark metal permanently chilled by an invisible frost, sent chills down his back.
“My thanks, friend.”
Exhaling with agitation, he looked past the ridge of his breastplate to make eye contact with you, a lupine smirk upon his face. Once a distant fiend screeching in the woods, your journeys with Blaidd gleaned his tells and ticks. Even in the aftermath of near death at Radahn’s festival, his face smoothed into a smug revelry of brotherhood: one warrior sharing the moment of victory and common cause with another. A warmth of family and companionship, long neglected to the lone shadow. Blaidd’s orchid irises quaked as he recalled his task, tearing himself from his pleased gaze before glancing to the horizon.
“I'm going to see mistress Ranni, now. I don't know what came over old Iji,” he paused to consider something, “but even if the odds are slim, I need to check the mistress is safe. Now, Ranni can finally set in motion the fight against her fate she's dreamt of for so long.”
The wolf placed his free hand on your shoulder, granting you a polite jostle and soft pet. Before he took another step, you interjected.
>> I have something to show you...
Blaidd flashed his canines, his lips tugging back in unfounded anger. That joyous thanks faltered, his purple irises tinting with red and gold like wine through water. It lasted only a brief moment, but you tensed, his animosity pointed directly at you. Just as swiftly as he bared his teeth, he relented, the glint and flare vanishing from his eyes. The peppy fighter blinked, shifting the snarl to a smile in an attempt to shake off the undue aggression that seized him so swiftly.
"Wait? What rightly stalls...”
He breathed deeply, the sound of metal and leather buckling around his expanding chest.
"Forgive me; I have levied great offense against you. ‘Tis unbecoming to a fellow retainer. Though time demands haste, I cannot rightly say you would waylay me without ample cause."
He stepped along the stone and grass patchwork, armor clanging with his mighty footfalls. Even shouldering his blade, the wolf adjusted its position only once with a lone grip.
“Speak plain; what do you wish to impart?”
>> Show lamp
You reach into your pouch, revealing the vessel in one hand. Blaidd shakes his head, trying once more to clear his mind.
“Hm? A trinket? I know not...” he paused. “That smell and handiwork. Old Iji shaped this, aye?”
Chuckling in fond recollection, the half-wolf closed his eyes.
“I’d have thought he laid his days of gold tempering behind him. But if he crafted you such an object, no doubt it is of some import.” His ear twitched as he gazed down at you, his gray sleet muzzle resting atop the embossed collar on his steel breastplate. “Is it to aid Ranni? I know only of dim plans and cooed assurances of her ascension’s true path... But you grant it to her shadow. Why? For what reason could...unless you intend for me to have it?”
You nodded, though Blaidd narrowed his gaze.
“Forgive my incredulity; after Iji’s daft need to imprison me, I’m not-...”
He glanced at your hands, nostrils flaring. Still extending the lamp, you allowed him to catch all its opulent glory.
“Still and all, I think the stars would spare me two japes in such a time. After all; you wouldn’t free me just to play such tricks, would you?”
He chortled with a somber but gleeful “heh.”
“A gift for me, then. Not since my coat have I inherited as thus.”
Leaning over, Blaidd’s sword stretched further into the star-filled skies, the solemn light of the moon and Erdtree casting the gaol hill in calm colors. Sniffing at the offering, he cocked his head.
"Unalloyed gold? Hmm, can't say I know too much about it, but I do know Iji wanted some for his helm, that flashy thing. And such a strange mark writ upon it as well,” Blaidd grazed the lamp’s surface, his covered claws tapping against the soft metal.
>> Ranni wishes you to write your rune upon it
Blaidd blinked, a gasp caught in the back of his throat. A hundred questions danced along Blaidd’s irises as they shifted and quaked, the wolf searching himself for the multitude of answers.
“Lady Ranni entrusted you with this task? I feel the sting of neglect that she would not beseech me herself.”
The words settled like poison in the wolf’s stomach.
“No, there would need be great cause for events to unfold thus. Though why didn’t she...”
Another hard question with no resolve; Blaidd’s cheeks creased, smooshing his eyes in pain and neglect.
>> Ranni feared your death
The wolf stood tall, the shadow looming larger than your own.
“Many have tried to kill me; to kill Ranni. Assassins, traitors, mercenaries; all faltered before her pale moonlight and her unflagging shadow. But-...you say she feared my death?”
He gazed skyward, the stars awash with perpetual golden twilight.
“I ask for little, but it fills my heart to know Ranni spared such a thought for me. A brother so undeserved in affairs of import. I take it Iji knew too?”
His eyes welled up, coating the tip of his furred cheeks.
“I...I don’t understand. I only wished to protect Ranni. To see her fate brought to fruition. A dark and somber night, for all; free from godly affairs and damnable decrees.”
Lips curling into a frown, he snorted.
“But I see now why she would request you to do this. This...might destroy me. Forever. A shadow undone.”
You nod once.
Blaidd stood silent. Searching. Dreading. Realizing.
His soul struggled along currents of golden obedience and chilled love. And he found, in the depths of himself, an answer. His answer. Through gritted teeth, he glowered at the meager trinket in your grasp, spying his sour reflection on its unblemished surface.
“I will never let myself be apart from Ranni. I’m part of her very being.”
He resettled his hand atop the lamp, a flash of gold magic sparking from his eyes. Slavering with strained effort, he bared his fangs.
“And if this is what it takes, I shall endure it! Until death or fate’s decree! For Ranni!”
Locking his jaw and narrowing his vision, Blaidd focused upon the vacant half of the gilded vessel even as his body revolted against the act. His will, destined to yield in time to a madness spiraling forth from grace, but with action and alacrity, he overcame it.
Sparks of light, kin to the countless motes that fluttered through the air of the Lands Between, expelled from Blaidd‘s body into the air. Like tumbling grains of sand, the flecks emanated outward, flowing like a swelling hurricane. The mark of the Greater Will, golden order bound into Blaidd’s flesh, pulsed outward, expunged in great waves of graceful warmth: a far cry from chilled serenity he yearned to be company with.
As the light piqued, a dark swirl of shadow writhed from his leather-bound palm. Wispy, prodding, and struggling against an invisible current. These tendrils bound and roiled over the lamp, clasping it like umbral vines. With a blinding flash, the last motes of gold abated, staggering the wolf as he shuddered to one knee. Impacting the ground with a heavy clamor, his sword chipped the goal’s circular stones as he lost his grip.
The wolf labored for breath, hand still upon the vessel. You both froze, unsure of the ritual’s success. Trepidation mounting, Blaidd’s grip shook as he retracted his massive gauntlet from the lamp, revealing a spiraling etching of a strange rune yet unseen. The concave depression pooled with the darkness of a night sky, shifting like soot trapped within furnace pipes. Eyelevel from his kneeling position, his eyes welled up with tears.
“The cold. That deathly chill. Frost’s discomfort is...abated. You wily soul, I-”
Your hands around the lamp tinged with a chill: a familiar bite to those stormy nights in a princess’ tower. The gold object hummed and vibrated as Blaidd’s rune doubled its swirling might. Even with thanks in his mouth and a smile of relief upon his muzzle, the wolf noted that the ritual had not yet concluded.
“The stars of my fate have shifted. I can feel...”
Rising from his knee, the warrior blinked, eyes dilating with numbing weakness. He stumbled, shooting for support as his toes failed to clear a step. In an instant, a hefty part of the towering wolf’s weight leaned against you before he righted himself. His breathing resumed, but rather than a warm rasp, he exhaled noticeable fumes of black: a strange miasma, as if exhaling in a thick fog.
Blaidd struggled for words, his eyes glued to yours as he tried righting his back. He growled and whined, fighting off some descending syncope. Even as he ground his teeth and tensed his muscles, the hand on your shoulder meekly squeezed. More half-words trailed past his lips as he muttered.
“My ire...lighter than...ill...I can’t...blade...apologies...”
Blaidd bent at the hip, vainly attempting to rearm himself with his royal greatsword. Fingers twiddling in his addled state, both you and him noticed a peculiar sight.
Seeping from the various bridges and overlapping sections of armor and cloth, familiar spools of shadow snaked their way free like smoke from a burning house. Slow, steady, but constant, the shadow wiggled across the air between you before slipping inside the lamp’s nozzle and disappearing to the cavity within. Blaidd’s breath sputtered, the strange miasma growing thicker and more consistent; a similar consistency to the fumes pouring from his arms and legs.
Realizing his vanity, Blaidd stopped trying to retrieve his blade. Instead, he held his limp wrist up to his muzzle, his lips tugged into sedated concern. Alarmed by the strange darkness spilling from his body, the source of the mysterious vapor became clear. The heavy digits present within his gloved gauntlet, bound to protect both bone and nail, creased with wrinkles. Like a balloon, the wolf warrior’s hand shriveled, the glove collapsing along the length. Finger-tips. Joint. Joints. Knuckles. In flopping segments, the wolf’s hand seemed to sift away like falling sand.
Eyes awash with uncertainty, he flubbed once more to you, his breathing taking more and more effort.
“Was this...the end...free...no pain...”
Blaidd’s weight resting on your shoulder lessened. Glancing at the wolf’s grip, his other hand, used for support, creased with lax leather. The jingle of loosening buckles joined the wolf’s pleading words, and though the broad shape of the half-wolf’s plate held his chest and greaves, the comforting cloak and cushioning cloth that hid his furred frame folded inward, absent his towering figure. His head, ever an imposing lupine visage, dissolved at the edges, the smoke pooling of his mouth joined by a halo of darkness. The half-wolf title appeared quite literal, only a fraction of ear, segments of a snout, and one eye surviving the final moments of this umbral unraveling. He beseeched you one last time, praying it wouldn’t be the last.
“Should I...see to...oh Ranni...”
Blaidd’s tenuous grip on your shoulder came undone, his gauntlet fingers sliding free. The leather straps holding for only a few seconds, the empty gloves swung before slipping free of their tight latches. The metal gear clanked against the dirt, joined by a quivering of paneled greaves that banged like shingles in the wind. Blaidd sighed and shut his last remaining eye, his head vanishing in a final trail of dark smoke.
Headless and handless, the turtle shell of his breastplate wavered as darkness continued funneling out of the armor’s neck. A soft ping echoed along the increasingly vacant interior as Blaidd’s signature cape, a gift to stave off the cold, slid free and pooled at the phantom’s heel. His sleeves, once filled with arms capable of lifting his mighty greatsword, batted against the quivering breastplate, listless and idle. Giving up the ghost, the armor spewed one last column of shadow. In loud succession, the leather boots folded beneath metal greaves and a puff of undergarment. The breastplate, capable of withstanding strikes from assassins with ease, slammed against the adjoining metal in a hollow clasp of thunder that rang for seconds on end. The careful weave of leather adjoining the protective plate wiggled and wheezed before sliding into inertia.
Vacant threads, large as a tent and odorous as a bear, laid motionless upon the cobble surface of the evergaol’s exterior. Surely an easier way to acquire armor, but the result laid apparent: Blaidd, in form and soul, vanished into shadowed air.
The lamp in your hand frosted over once, chilling the surrounding grass and segments of the wolf’s shirked armor with creeping ice. You touched Blaidd’s rune, still fuming with darkness, and as if answering some unspoken call, he answered.
In a far more elegant exit than entrance, a snaking blot of smoke, black as coal, swirled out of the spout in a constant fume. The narrow stream ballooned outward quickly from a narrow inch to an increasingly massive cloud. The smoke darkened as it centered itself, creating a window into a starless night sky. And from that void, a thrilled voice, charged by adrenaline and joy, called out.
“...is this...I feel it. The unmoored enthrall of it. The lamp you hold. As if I could streak across the night sky without a care.”
The smoke solidified in parts and portions: teeth like flowing stars, a barren arm ripe with fur and muscle, and the giddy quiver of a barren chest that bled into the surrounding smoke. The form never materialized below some imaginary line at the hips, the rest of the figure trailing back to the lamp in your hand, but with a final chortle, a pair of lilac irises flashed in the dark. Blaidd, returned to some manner of life, glanced down at his patchwork and naked body.
“Oi, this ain’t exactly an easy sensation. Passing strange, truly. I shan’t consider how I’d handle my blade thus.”
Blaidd stopped, inhaling to stave off the tears forming in his eyes. Bits of frost drifted from his caruncles like weightless tears, joining the dizzying golden motes that continued to pepper Limgrave’s night.
“I feel as if I am forever within this state. A shadow truer than stalking or following. But...it is for Ranni, I shall endure.”
Still an imposing figure even without legs or armor, the half-wolf torso drifted down to your level. You bowed, the lamp resting against your chest. In recognition, Blaidd returned the gesture.
“I owe you…more than my life. My new-...brother-in-law, I suppose. Strange how fate’s wended to this twist, isn’t it?”
His smirk perpetually dissolved at the edges, his ethereal outline folding from dark gray to stormy blue to smokey black.
“I knew from the moment we met that we’d be right as rain. And after all you’ve done for Ranni, for me, I think I need to start calling you by proper titles. My Lord; seek a crown and adjoin to my sister’s mantle. From shadow to incarnate, I shall never stray from her side. Nor yours. Sit upon the Elden Throne, so that I might serve you both in the age to come. Now unto the moon’s eternity.”
And with that, the mighty half-wolf Blaidd dispersed, retreating to the lamp within your grasp. You scooped up the vacant equipment: spoils best acquired with love and care than a tragic brawl.
The Lands Between still held many mysteries, but you knew by the end, you would have at least one new friend to share the dawn of a new age with.
Blaidd’s Vessel
An unalloyed gold lamp housing Blaidd. Marked with the wolf brother’s personal rune and Eternal Service.
When the Golden Order decreed his obedience from birth to death, a worrying witch sought to free her childhood companion at a consort’s request.
And so the shadow became night rather than fade without golden light.
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Multiple characters
Size 120 x 120px
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