Luna
She sat quietly down beside her queen. A soft hand rested upon another as the cool winds whipped them. She squeezed tenderly, lacing fingers as Marika returned the gesture. "There's something I should tell you."
"Divulging secrets at last, are we?" She smiled gently as her gaze stayed on the gentle waters. Her thumb lightly stroked the callused bumps along the knuckle bones. She had a softness in her eyes when she did that which made her eyes shimmer so beautifully.
"You are not the only one cursed to share a soul to more than one mind."
"Luna..." She whispered. "Melina had told me some, but... I had hoped it a passing thing." Her eyes turned to the moonlit knight, who quietly blushed beneath her worried eyes.
"No. In a way, you could say I was born, or... made that way. My prison was not an urn, but a cage." She squeezed Marika's hand, who met it with an arm thrown around her lover. She held her tightly, wrapped in her warmth that tore at every strand restraint had to offer. She wept. A cry few truly could grasp the intensity of. A cry only a woman who understood the worst pain could give. To have their very body robbed from them.
It went on for hours, the quiet outbursts as all control gave way. The sheer burden of the stress, now that its greatest risk was abated, came crashing down in waves of pain and choked cries. It was a long night before words at last found them again.
...
"So... you, too, have..."
"They are called aspects, or others to the laymen." Luna wiped her face quietly, hands busy repairing Marika's scarf. She had damn near given up and started a new one, but her queen insisted on preserving it. "Several, but the one's you likely have or will meet are those more focused on fighting."
"I only have... Him." The knight's lip twitched at the mere mention, but cooled herself quickly as she resumed stitching.
"Heiress, Duchess, and Nahul are the ones you likely could meet." She followed-up with a snip of thread as she began to work the other end, say on Marika's lap as they spoke. They had found a good piece of dead tree to lean against while they spent the day relaxing. The plan was to take a breather before heading toward the Erdtree and ending things.
"Hm. How regal. What are they like?" She had begun lightly combing Luna's black locks, which sent a visible tremble through her.
"Mmm... Heiress is my. Mm..." She fumbled for a moment, almost resembling a little fox purring as they are stroked. Her queen stopped, giggling lightly as the knight blushed.
"He-hey!" She exclaimed with no real emphasis.
"So precious. Behind all that bark, a flower lay." She stroked the moonlit knight's cheek as a cooing warmth spread through her. "Now. Come, speak."
She released a soft series of grumbles when Marika moved her hand away, which was answered with more charmed chuckles. "Heiress is my fury and my control. Bloodlust tempered by patience."
"How intense sounding."
"Hehe, she would sulk at that."
Mean.
The knight grinned. "Hmm. Did she hear me?" Her queen asked. She nodded softly.
"We have communication again now that my memories are mostly back." She leaned back against her lover, back aching slightly from her own sobs. "She is a quiet type, but no side of me is a better hunter, or as fiercely loyal."
"How romantic." She chuckled playfully.
"Duchess is.... my theatricism and sadomasochism."
"..." a slight pause. "Go on." She whispered, leading the nervous knight to blush.
"Loud, exuberant, and eager to fight. She is the most artistic of me, and arguably the cruelest."
"Yet, she sounds accepted."
"She targets only the wicked, and she has no malice toward innocents."
"Hmm. Interesting." She gently played with the blue tops of her knight's hair.
"Then..." a long breath.
Nahul opened her eyes to glance up at jer queen. "There is me." She spoke with a quiet kind of witheld spite that bit at the ears.
"Hello. Nahul, I presume?"
"Mm." She nodded softly as she sat up, growling at the pain. "Fucking back." She cracked it with a snarl. "Ugh, can't wait to get back home." She scratched at her neck, lip in a seemingly permanent scowl for a moment before a kiss on her temple shifted her. Luna gently blinked, blushing as she nestled against the neck of her beloved.
"So she must be your honesty." She whispered warmly, stroking a few fingers through the hair of her knight who began to slip into restfulness.
"Marika..."
"Shhh." She kissed her on the forehead. "Just rest here, for a little while. You habe had a very long journey, dear knight. Lay your head upon my bosom and know relief, with only me."
"My queen.."
"No more words." She gently wrapped the shroud of her cloak around them. "No more worries."
Luna breathed gently, trying to calm the storm that brewed before Marika began to softly sing in her ear.
"No more fears... no more tears... just stay right here... let your minddd be clear..." Her hand lightly stroked the knight's hair as her voice sung in the softness of folk tales and stories one sang to sleeping babes. "Just hear the trees... listen tooo the moon at night... don't let your mind be carried off, by sorrowww, and fright... I shall abate... each horrored dream ... Just rest your eyes.... and let yourself... find... peace..."
The knight was gone before another word could be heard, safe in the warm embrace of her queen.
...
Radahn
Yearning for old steel
A star weeps for treachery
This flower soothes me.
...
Ranni
"Careful. Careful, I said!" She shouted to Radahn as he lumbered over the piles of bagged supplies they had gathered for the long journey back. Ranni could teleport them all, but not only would it exhaust her, Luna had insisted that they had more to uncover here. She had not lied, per se, but Ranni had been practically helpless. It was luck and cooperation that had saved her from certain death against the fool Godrick, and she had not been eager to be so drained again. Only Melina and Fia had heard her voice the trembling fear it had induced, but Luna had clearly seen it as well.
Perhaps she even understands.
He grunted, rolling his eyes as his billowing brown cloak turned with his body as je set down the large bundle into the carriage. Luna had made it in a hurry to Ranni's specifications. She seemed to have a talent for crafting so long as she had clear and vivid instructions, which Ranni as a picky and detail oriented woman, was eager to give.
"There we go. Good work, brother." She patted the side of his leather boot, which was as high as she could reach physically. He grunted in affirmation before walking back to where the mysterious Trina was sleeping. She had a small bed fashioned out of a bush laiden with flowers, which she seemed to find comfortable enough.
The wrench she doth throw.
...
Melina
She grunted softly as Ranni gently dabbed water of Melina's cursed eye. "Does it ache?"
"Terribly at times, but this helps..." She relaxed her head on the pillow of the snow witch's lap. "Have you thought about... after?"
"After?"
"When the tree's gone. When.. its all over."
"Well. Not exactly how I had hoped to see the era of gods end in these lands, but it certainly gives me comfort."
Melina sat up gently, looking more at her dear. "And. After?" She watched the gaze through her open eye of the witch. She stared for a long time, the gears whirling in her eyes.
"Perhaps. A nice cottage. Somewhere I can study the moon." She lightly stroked Melina's hair. "I shall certainly need company." Melina blushed gently.
"Fia and I?"
"Will certainly be my partners in such pursuits." Melina relaxed back down against her thighs. Whatever lied ahead, she knew that a home awaited at Journey's End.
...
Rellana
"Are you... certain?" She rested her head against the shoulder of her secret husband. Messmer softly nodded, watching the camp from a hill nearby under the guise of scouting.
"This is not the woman that left us." He watched as Marika sung gently to her knight by the river. "This is not the woman who sent us to die." He quietly squeezed her in.
"Does that truly undo her crimes?"
"What has she done but undo what she has done?"
"Wise. I am... trepidatious still."
"Good." He whispered, the snake in his chest aching painfully as he watched her. His mind swirled with hatred, yet his heart only yearned for the mother he sought to make proud. Even his serpent seemed to long for the approval of the gilded queen. She was the woman who had birthed him, again, or at least who he had seen. Not completely. Perhaps even more of the true Marika.
"She isn't afraid anymore." He softly whispered.
"No, she is terrified." She corrected. Messmer looked at her, quirking a brow. "She just isn't alone with her fear. She has folks to lean on."
"She always did."
"No. You read those books with me. All she had was servants, slaves and suitors."
"How tragic..." Rellana sighed softly.
"But. Now she has this knight, and perhaps, things can heal between her and Rennala."
"Do you think she truly harbored those feelings? Given her... condition?"
"You trust me to conquer my demon, and love you, even as my heart can only hurt yes?"
"Of course, Messmer."
"Then trust that love has, too, changed her."