Chapter Text
Fay stood in the middle of the dimly-lit chamber, tugging at the cloak around her shoulders like a security blanket. Before her were two massive fingers, named aptly, as she had recently learned, the Two Fingers. They were gently swaying, and she even thought she could hear breathing coming from their flesh. She decided to try and not make eye contact.
Sitting atop a small table nearby was an old, eyeless crone, clutching a staff and welcoming the young woman with a toothless smile. Fay tried not to make eye contact there either.
She had been summoned here, quite suddenly and for reasons unexplained. A crone had approached her, a different one, and had immediately whisked her away to this place; to the Roundtable Hold. A den of Tarnished warriors young and old, with ambitions and penchants for battle.
Fay didn’t make eye contact with anyone here as well.
“Ahhh,” the old crone finally spoke, forcing Fay’s gaze to align with the old woman’s. “Yes…you are the Alba Fara, are you not?”
The pure white traveler. That’s what they called her. The younger woman said nothing, though an unsettling feeling sunk in as the crone admitted to knowing who she was. Fay’s eyes, a stark white to match the name, flicked elsewhere about the room. The crone must have noticed her discomfort, as the old woman's demeanor shifted slightly.
“Oh? Do not be alarmed. You are safe and welcome here.” Her voice was surprisingly quiet and melodious, like a grandmother who was teaching a child to sew.
“I am Enia, the Finger Reader," she continued. “I interpret the words of the Fingers, envoys to the Greater Will.” The crone looked up at the Fingers with something like reverence and awe. “They have seen your fate, and in their wisdom, have summoned you here.”
Fay’s white gaze bounced between the crone and the Fingers. “...Why?” she finally asked. Enia once again looked at the young woman with a strange smile.
“They have chosen you,” she responded, then reached out an old hand in the Two Fingers’ direction. “Come, child, approach them. Then you will see.”
Fay looked down at the crone’s hand, then towards the Fingers. They'd seen her fate? She’d never believed in fate. She held firm the belief that her path would be her own, not the making of others. She cast a skeptical gaze at the crone, staying rooted to the spot.
Enia noticed the young woman's lack of movement. "Oh, you are reluctant to accept? I assure you, young one, the Fingers only want what is best for the Lands Between."
As the old woman spoke, the Fingers suddenly began to shudder and shift. Enia noticeably perked, and swiveled herself to face them. She seemed excited, for as excited as an old, eyeless crone could be.
“Ahhh, look now! The Fingers would give you their offer. Heed their words.”
Enia’s face contorted slightly, and she almost seemed to straighten. Then, she began to speak.
“Great Elden Ring…Anchor of all lands, giver of grave, wellspring of all joy…"
As she spoke, the crone’s voice became deeper and more monotonous, channeling the words of the Fingers themselves.
“...Until it was shattered, and the Golden Order…tainted. Now, corruption has beset the land. Life lies in ruin across the realm. Fallen to pieces. Foul curses and misery spread, unabating.”
Fay watched the strange display with curiosity, her interest now piqued. It was true…the Lands Between had fallen to chaos, everyone killing anyone for even a glimpse of power. An awful state for such a land, one that she hated seeing. Something indeed needed to be done.
“Young maiden,” the Fingers, through Enia, continued, “the Greater Will has chosen you to bring about change. To remedy the Golden Order, and put all to rights once more. To save the life that the land yet carries.”
And with their final words communicated, the Fingers once again grew still. Enia seemed to slouch forward slightly, and she faced Fay.
“Alba Fara, the Two Fingers would anoint you for this task,” she said once more in her elderly voice, gesturing towards the Fingers, “all you need do is touch them.”
...Touch them? Fay looked up at the Fingers, peering over their decrepit skin and occasional long, stray hair. She couldn’t help but twist her mouth, her brief moment of interest now beset with skepticism.
However, she couldn’t deny that what they said was true. Something was wrong with the world, and she had always felt the call to heal it somehow. And now she was summoned here, to this place, for such a task when it had seemed so impossible before. Perhaps…
She gently lifted her left hand, the cloak falling away from her arm. Just one touch, and perhaps she would have answers. Hesitantly, she stepped forward, glancing back up towards the crone.
“And what you say is true?” she peered at Enia, searching her for any sign of deception. “I can help heal the Lands Between if I do this?”
The crone simply smiled a toothless smile. “The Fingers have spoken. They will lend you their strength, should you accept.”
A roundabout answer, but a truthful one, at least. Fay sighed, and turned once more to the Fingers. They made no grand movement, no sudden twitch or bend at her approach, they simply swayed and breathed.
Well, she thought to herself, might as well get this over with…
And with another step, Fay let her hand brush against the skin of the Two Fingers.
Immediately her vision went white. Her mind was assaulted by words and images; information planted into her brain at lighting-speed. She gasped at the rapid shock and quickly recoiled, but the knowledge was already settling itself in her mind. As the feeling waned, she quickly scanned the new memories imposed upon her. Incantations, sacred terminology, new knowledge of the Greater Will, and…something else. Some faint power now at her disposal. She looked down at her hands, the shock slowly dissipating, but confusion remaining.
“What…” she breathed, looking up at Enia, “...what just happened?”
Enia regarded her kindly, “Dear child, you have now become a Finger Maiden.”
Fay blinked, no closer to answers than before. “...A what?”
Enia tilted her head forward slightly. “The Finger Maidens are servants of a chosen Tarnished…one who has been called back by the grace of the Greater Will,” she slowly explained. “The power you feel is the ability to turn fragments of golden runes into strength for the Tarnished. You must find your destined Tarnished warrior, and use the wisdom given you by the Fingers to lead them on the path to restoring the Elden Ring…and becoming Elden Lord.”
Fay blinked again, her eyes growing wide, her hands never wavering. That wasn’t the deal. “A Tarnished?” she glowered, a brief flash of disdain crossing her white eyes. “You want me to serve a Tarnished?”
Enia slowly nodded her oversized head, “You seek change, do you not? The Tarnished have been called to act, and restore the Elden Ring. And you have been anointed, as a Finger Maiden, to aid them.”
Fay said nothing, simply electing to lower her hands back beneath her cloak. Slowly, she raised her left hand to her right arm, feeling not flesh, but metal where an arm once was. An arm lost long ago.
“Your Tarnished…” Enia continued, “is the champion knight of two worlds, the one who walks in flame. Oh yes, a worthy Tarnished, indeed. Grace will guide your path, Finger Maiden Alba Fara.”
Enia’s countenance remained kind and calm. Fay met it with a stone-cold expression, letting her hand slip from the false arm beneath her cloak. White eyes glanced once between the crone and the Two Fingers, before Fay turned and strode from the room.
Unlike the dim light of the inner chamber, the rest of the Hold was relatively well lit by the sconces along the wall, as well as the rather large mote of grace above the roundtable. A number of faces surrounded the room, many of them helmeted and covered in armor.
Almost as soon as she left the chamber, though, she was approached by a man garbed in rather uncomfortable looking robes, a blindfold around his eyes, and a wooden wheel completely encircling his neck. Fay hadn’t a moment to say a word before he smiled and extended towards her a folded, light pink set of robes. Atop the garments sat a small, silver seal with two handle-shaped protrusions from a central ring. It looked suspiciously like the Two Fingers.
“You’re the new Finger Maiden, yes? I am Brother Corhyn, a man of the cloth. You’ll be needing these,” he explained, raising the garments slightly higher.
Fay looked at the robes and seal, then up towards the man. “What are they?”
“Ah, well,” he looked down at the robes, “your uniform, of course. This is the standard wear for all Finger Maidens. There’s a cloak in there for you as well, for your travels.” He shifted his hands, gesturing with his head down towards the bundle. “And the seal is for you to use until you find your Tarnished. Then you will bestow it upon them so that they may cast sacred incantations.”
Fay sighed begrudgingly. She decided it wasn’t worth the effort to argue. Reluctantly, she accepted the garments into her arms, and as soon as Corhyn turned his back, stuffed them into her satchel.
“Well, I must say, this is quite unexpected.”
Another voice interrupted her as she shoved the robes away. She looked up and swiveled her head, turning her white gaze to meet a face obscured by a helmet, resting atop a figure hunched over an ornate staff. He seemed to tilt his head as she acknowledged him.
“It’s been quite some time since we’ve had a new Finger Maiden anointed. It piques my curiosity, what kind of Tarnished the Fingers expect you to serve,” the man’s voice was low and gravelly, betraying his age. He seemed to size her up and down, “Especially one such as yourself, Alba Fara.”
Fay stiffened, “I’m…I’m not sure what you mean-”
“I strive to accumulate knowledge of all kinds. To be All-Knowing,” he continued. Though his eyes were obscured, Fay couldn’t help but feel them boring into her. “I’ve heard of you…and the rumors. The woman with the white eyes and the hair that glows beneath the stars. Some say you’re cursed. Others say you’re a living wellspring of magical power.”
The ‘all-knowing’ man leaned forward on his cane, readjusting his pose, staring at her more intensely.
“Allow me to give you a word of advice, Finger Maiden,” he said flatly. “Remember your place. You are a servant; nothing more, and nothing less. And you in particular…well, whatever power you strengthen your Tarnished with whilst alive…cannot compare to the power you’d grant them if they kill you and take it for themselves. The Tarnished are, after all, here to take.”
The room suddenly felt small. Fay felt glued to the spot, her expression hardened.
“You are safe in the Hold,” he continued. “But this is a place for the bravest of Tarnished champions. I’ve no patience for those who think of us as nothing but a shelter, including traveling Maidens,” he paused briefly, before subtly nodding his head in the direction of the grace above the table. “There’s nothing more to be said. Find your Tarnished, and be on your way.”
Fay held no hesitation as she stalked her way into the grace, teleporting from the Hold with cynicism renewed. This could not be her fate. She refused to believe that any of these Tarnished had sound intentions. It was just the same as before: they only wanted to take.
As she returned to the shoreside of Lake Agheel, she looked down at the tiny, golden aura at her feet. Grace. But, there was more to it now. A large arc of light cascaded through the air from the mote of gold, drifting off in the direction of a large temple atop a hill. Grace was already pointing her towards the path it wanted her to go. Towards this supposed “worthy Tarnished”. Fay glared at the temple, turned on her heel, and strode in the opposite direction.
She would choose her own fate. She would be no one’s maiden.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Unfortunately for you, however…you are maidenless.”
The Tarnished looked down at the masked man before her, his countenance obscured and his garb a dirty white. He was adequately sized for a regular human, which meant that he was reduced to peering up at a Tarnished who was very much not regular-human sized. In fact, she was about twice his height, hefting a halberd just as high. He seemed unbothered by the towering woman, though; his voice sing-songy and smug all the same.
“Without guidance, without the strength of runes, and without an invitation to the Roundtable Hold…” she could see his eyes shift beneath the mask, as if he were smiling, “you are fated, it seems, to die in obscurity.”
Above him, blue eyes narrowed. The Tarnished woman planted her halberd and dropped to one knee, allowing her to peer right into the masked man’s smarmy gaze.
“What did you say?”
If the man was fazed, he didn’t show it. Instead, he simply tilted his head and patiently rubbed his blood-dried gloves together.
“Oh dear, are you opposed to the notion that you might die in a ditch somewhere, forgotten, without name or ceremony? Oh, don’t fret, Tarnished, there is hope for you yet. Maidenless as you are. You see, I-”
“Let me make something absolutely clear, you bite-sized Zamor,” she cut him off with a sharp jab of her armor-plated finger, “I will not be forgotten. And you will refer to me as Jaxyys, not 'Tarnished'. Understood?”
The man’s hands both rose defensively. “Fine and well, then. I understand your temper, really I do. But before you go jabbing your mitts at friendly figures…” the man gently moved aside her pointing digit with the back of his hand, “...you might ask yourself if you are truly ready to face the Lands Between so unprepared. I, Varre, am only trying to help.” His head tilted in an odd way. “Tell me, are you familiar with grace?”
Jaxyys’ mouth opened briefly, before it shut once again, unable to respond. She shifted in slight irritation. Alright, so maybe she’d been a little hasty in throwing names and pointing fingers. Her head nodded briefly up towards the towering Erdtree splaying through the sky.
“...Grace of the Erdtree right? I’ve heard of it,” she finally admitted. Varre’s hand smoothly gestured towards a flickering site of golden light on the ground behind her.
“Indeed. This is the very lifeblood of you Tarnished. It has brought you from death, and it will most certainly guide your way forward,” he explained, his voice smooth and calm as butter. “Tell me, Jaxyys, do you see its guidance, pointing you towards the path you are meant to follow?"
The Tarnished woman looked down at the small mote of light. She hadn't noticed much about it at first; it was, in fact, quite far beneath her. But as her gaze was cast over the light, she could see the ray of gold drifting through the air, just as the masked man had said. She raised an arm, following the path with both her finger and her eyes.
“Yeah! Yeah, I can see it. It's pointing…” she trailed off, reaching the end of the lofty path, “...towards the castle on the cliff.”
Varre seemed to nod knowingly, “Oh yes...Castle Stormveil, home of the decrepit demigod, Godrick the Grafted. A worthy start for a Tarnished seeking to become Elden Lord.”
Jaxyys blinked, turning back to the masked man with a perked head. “Elden Lord? Did you say Elden Lord?”
Varre's eyes shifted again as he supposedly smiled beneath the mask. “Indeed. That is the hopeful fate for the Tarnished, such as yourself. To seek the Elden Ring, and become Elden Lo-”
“-As in the great warrior Godfrey, first King Consort and Elden Lord?!” The large woman's hands shot out and grabbed the man's shoulders, eyes widened.
Varre stiffened, glancing down at her gauntlets gripping his robes. Now he looked uncomfortable. “I…suppo-”
“And the red-haired Radagon, champion of Leyndell and second Elden Lord?!” she continued with excitement. “You're telling me I could be that?!”
"Yes," Varre snapped, trying, and failing, to remove himself from her grasp. "Yes, that Elden Lord."
“Well, why didn't you say so?!" She lightly shook his shoulders, practically trembling with animation. “Honestly, man, 'obscurity' this and 'maidenless' that; next time just skip straight to the good part.”
Varre gave a small, exasperated sigh. “Yes, well, without a maid-”
“There's no time to lose,” Jaxyys finally released her grip as she stood, having totally lost all interest in the man before her. “I've got to get to that castle. Ooh, do you think they'll let me keep it when I become Elden Lord? Eh, who am I kidding? We're gonna need a bigger one.”
She laughed to herself, already palming her halberd and striding away. The masked man blinked in bewilderment, sighed again, and threw his hands up in silent resignation.
The Lands Between had become a bit more, for lack of a better term, ruined than when Jaxyys had last seen it. I mean really, there were random bits of chiseled stone just littered across the Limgrave landscape. The churches were all in pieces, the buildings all falling to bits, and it wasn’t long before a wild boar tried to gore her ankles with its tusks.
On the bright side, at least she’d have plenty of dried pork for dinner.
The locals weren’t too happy to see her either, apparently. Or maybe they were? The soldiers all shouted “TARNISHED!” at her and rushed in her direction, swords drawn, whenever she approached. Jaxyys could never deny herself the thrill of the fight, yet something felt off.
She remembered dying yesterday, taking her last breath not hours ago…and yet she felt like she’d been asleep for an eternity. Her body didn’t feel quite right yet; muscles stiff and reactions slower than she was used to. So that’s why when a giant troll bellowed and jumped down from the gate to shake the ground before her, she instead decided that a tactical retreat was in order.
Fortunately, having a stride twice as long as your pursuers meant she could outrun the foot soldiers with ease. The troll was slow and cumbersome, unable to grab at the charging knight as she sprinted past. But, just as she thought she had made it safely through the initial wave of defense for what was presumably Castle Stormveil, the wolves appeared. They were fast and coordinated, chasing the Tarnished warrior even further down the road than she’d expected to travel. And if that wasn’t enough trouble, Jax was forced to blink dust and dirt free from her eyes as the wind suddenly picked up over the hill. Another patrol of soldiers approached from in front, the wolves closed in from behind, and Jax found herself steered from the path.
Eventually the onslaught of pursuers finally ceased, and upon reaching a wind-blown clearing, the giant woman was allowed a moment to keel over and catch her breath.
“Well…I think…that's enough…for a morning workout…” she muttered to herself between wheezes. She ran a gauntlet through her hair, brushing her bangs from her eyes before raising her head and surveying her surroundings.
In her rush she’d followed the road before her, but instead of a castle, the path only led to a decrepit bridge, half-destroyed.
Jax, still panting from the trek, groaned and bowed her head in dismay. Right. Of course she’d taken a wrong turn. Well, no matter, even a wayward path could be salvaged.
She looked back up once more, breath suitably slowed and stamina restored. Her blue eyes squinted through the billowing winds. A silhouette sat upon the bridge, its wind-obscured shape deformed and lopsided.
Curiosity got the better of her, and Jax couldn’t help but approach.
The faraway shape eventually clarified into an old crone, perched atop a lone shelf and clutching a long staff. Her head was rather enormous compared to the rest of her body, and her eye sockets completely sunken and empty.
“Um…hello?” Jax raised a hand in a half-hearted wave, unsure if it would even be seen. “Hi, Tarnished here. I'm trying to get to Castle Stormveil…?”
The crone seemed to straighten at her approach. Her mouth opened in a dry gasp.
“You…please, I can read them,” the crone begged, reaching out at the Tarnished eagerly as she approached. “Your fingers, please, your fingers..."
Jax looked down at the crone’s quivering open palm, taken aback somewhat by the cryptic words.
“Read my…fingers?” she glanced down at her own hand, shrouded in gold armor and brown leather. “Well, I suppose it couldn’t hurt…” she relented, reaching for her right gauntlet and pulling it from her hand.
As Jax lowered her much-larger hand down towards the crone, the old woman eagerly grasped at her fingers, gasping and peering at her fair skin.
“Oh, bless you…” she rasped, handling the Tarnished’s fingers carefully. She poured over them, breathing in exclamation as she did. “Oh…ohhh!”
Jax couldn’t help but lean forward, stricken with curiosity. Her gaze flicked between the crone and her own hand. “What? What is it? What do you see?”
The old woman gasped a deep breath. “Your Finger Maiden, yes…you must seek her at once! The pure white maiden, the Alba Fara, with hair and eyes that shine like the stars in the night sky,” she paused for another long breath. “Only then can the prophecy be fulfilled…and a Tarnished become Elden Lord.”
With a last rasp, the crone finally let the Tarnished’s hand fall from hers. Jax looked down at her hand with wonder.
"You got all that just from my fingers?" she pondered aloud. Half of her was surprised such a thing was possible. The other half was a little disappointed there wasn't more. One would think, with an oversized hand, there would be an oversized fate. Maybe it came in parts? Yes, that had to be it.
“So, what's this about a Finger Maiden?” Jax pressed, replacing the glove and gauntlet back on her hand. “Is that what the white mask was talking about, being ‘maidenless’?”
“The Finger Maidens serve the Two Fingers…and the Tarnished,” the crone's old, dry lips parted again to answer. “Your Maiden will grant you the strength of runes, and will aid you on your journey. Seek her out, and may the Elden Ring be yours.”
A surprisingly coherent answer from an otherwise cryptic crone. Jax nodded her head in both thanks and approval, then turned away from the crone to survey the landscape. Standing tall over Limgrave, the winds of Stormveil blew her ponytail dramatically behind her.
“Well, Castle Stormveil's not going anywhere. I suppose there's some time for sightseeing,” she spoke into the air, then huffed defiantly through her nose as she strode back into the expanse of Limgrave.
“Besides, the people need to get to know their future Elden Lord.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The day was passing, and Fay had found herself simply wandering in a random direction. As long as it was away from wherever grace wanted her to go, it was good enough. That particular direction happened to land her in the midst of a forest, surrounded by tall, close-knit trees. She kept her head down, eyes on the trodden road before her as she let her mind wander.
So much had happened. And so quickly, too. Even though she had touched the Fingers freely, she never asked for…this. This destiny forced upon her.
Fay looked down at her hands, slowly rubbing a tanned finger over her right palm, feeling the metal prosthetic. She had hope once, some time ago. Hope in heroes and hope in safety, hope that the Lands Between could be salvaged and cured. All she had ever wanted was to try and make this world a better place. But now, was it even possible? …Was it even worth it?
Fay kept staring at her hands as she continued walking, sinking into her thoughts, slowly becoming oblivious of the world around her.
Oblivious of the enormous, darkened shape that had noticed her presence.
A bellowing roar tore her from her trance. Fay snapped her head up, eyes wide in alarm. She looked into the hateful and hungry black eyes of a runebear, jaws open in mid-lunge, already sailing through the air straight at her. Time seemed to slow as Fay watched the bear approach, no time to run, not even a moment to lift her hand. Closer, closer, until…
“HEY!”
A massive halberd swung into view, the blade slamming down into the top of the rune bear’s skull. Immediately, the bear howled as it was forced to the ground, sinking into the dirt with a loud THUMP not a foot away from where Fay was standing.
“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?!”
Fay slowly swiveled her head. A woman twice her height towered above her, golden armor adorned with red fabrics and white furs glinting in the evening sun.
With a tug, the stranger yanked the halberd from the rune bear’s head, and Fay looked at her, confused where she had even come from. After a pause to readjust her grip on the weapon, the woman looked back down at Fay, smiled, opened her mouth to say something, but only managed an “OOF-” as she was promptly tackled to the ground by the quickly-recovered runebear.
Fay leapt back, barely missing the beast’s massive body as it lunged forward with an earth-shaking roar, pinning the giant woman to the ground and dislodging the halberd from her hands. It gnashed at her with its teeth, and in retaliation, she grabbed at its jaws to wrangle the beast’s thrashing maw away from her face. She grunted at the strain, fighting for control as she was immobilized against the earth. Despite playing chew toy with the wild beast, the orange-haired woman managed to turn her head up towards Fay.
“Hey! You okay?!” she called, shockingly jovial.
Fay blinked, her eyes wide. “Me?! You’re the one wrestling a runebear.”
“Bah,” the woman spat, still struggling to contain the beast's clamping jaws behind her gauntlets, “I’ve got it all under control!”
The bear howled again, sending a shower of saliva at the woman’s face. She immediately cringed and rolled her face away, spitting.
“Pheh- gah- Oh come on, that was uncalled for,” she scolded the beast. The beast replied with more thrashing of its jaws, now attempting to swipe at her with its enormous paws.
The large woman tightened her grip, her eyes watching the bear intently. The beast reared its head back, finally freeing itself of the woman’s grip. And then, in a swift motion, lunged its head back downwards to strike. The woman dodged her head out of the way, just as the bear’s jaws clamped together in a powerful bite. With her hands now free, the warrior raised a palm, and Fay watched as a mote of fire briefly surrounded the hand, before it was slammed on the ground at her side.
Immediately, a blast of flames erupted upwards, cascading through both the fighter and the beast. The runebear roared, offset by the sudden blistering heat, crawling backwards and rearing its head in pain. The woman, conversely, was completely unfazed as she leapt to her feet. With a long reach through the flames, she grabbed for the halberd on the ground, planted her feet, twisted, and swung.
The blade hit the still-blazing bear square on the side of the snout. From its beastly throat rumbled a ground-shaking, deathly roar, before it collapsed, shut its eyes, and finally lied still.
The fire finally calmed, and silence seemed to settle over the forest. Fay remembered to blink. The woman heaved her chest in a heavy breath as she once again plied the blade from the runebear’s head.
“There, see?” the towering woman panted, gesturing towards the dead bear, then looking down at Fay. “All under control.”
Immediately, however, Fay’s attention was diverted to the woman’s shoulder, which was still, noticeably, on fire.
“You, ah…” Fay gestured towards the smoldering area, “you’re still a little…”
“Hm?” the other woman turned her head. “Oh!” She reached up, patting out the flame with her hand. “Eh, it does that all the time. I can definitely promise you it hurt the bear more.”
She had to be around 9 feet tall, Fay herself only barely coming up to her midsection. Her skin was rather pale, most of it hidden under dark brown leathers and golden plates of armor, red cloth both falling from her hips in a waistcloth and encircling her neck in a gorget. A ponytail held back wild, orange hair above a trimmed undercut, complete with freshly-disheveled bangs that framed her face.
She, too, was looking down at Fay, most likely giving the shorter woman her own brief examination. The giant woman raised an orange eyebrow and seemed to cock her head slightly.
“Your eyes…they’re white,” she remarked, curiosity in her voice.
Fay stiffened, averting her gaze briefly. “...Yes, yes they are…” she replied slowly.
The two women stared at each other for a long, tense moment, until the other finally broke the silence.
“...What, are you blind or something?” the tall woman asked, waving her hand in front of Fay’s eyes. Fay huffed in exasperation, shaking her head and throwing up her hands.
“No, no I’m not blind,” she answered, meeting the other’s gaze once more. “I can see just fine.”
“Well, I mean, you did miss that runebear-”
“That- well…” Fay began to interject, then cleared her throat. “Anyway, I do have to thank you for …saving me, I suppose … miss…?” she petered off, unsure of how to address the other. The other woman perked immediately.
“Ah! Right! Of course, I almost forgot to introduce myself…” she laughed, then planted the base of her halberd on the ground and placed her other fist on her hip, striking a pose and flashing a smile.
“The name’s Jaxyys, at your service. Champion of champions, defender of the defenseless, heroine extraordinaire, etcetera, etcetera…” the woman called Jaxyys tossed her bangs. “But, you can just call me Jax.”
Fay couldn’t help but feel a strange feeling of dread. They’d only just met, and this woman already seemed like a novel and a half. She examined Jax’s smug expression, only then noticing the tell-tale shimmer of gold in the other’s blue irises.
“You’re…Tarnished,” she remarked. Jax’s eyes widened somewhat.
“Oh, that too. I’ll need to remember to add that to the list. It’s somewhat of a more recent development,” she explained, lifting the halberd from the ground to rest it atop her shoulder. She cocked an eyebrow. “And you are…?”
“...Fay,” the shorter woman introduced herself. “My name’s Fay.”
“Well, Fay,” Jax nodded, then looked up towards the sky peeking through the thick canopy of leaves, “it’s going to get dark pretty soon, so I’ll tell you what; there’s a church just north of the Mistwood. I can escort you there, and we can camp together for the night, just so we don’t have any more giant-bear-shaped surprises,” she smiled in amusement, and met Fay’s gaze. “Deal?”
Well, Tarnished or not, at least she seemed friendly enough. And Fay supposed it wouldn’t hurt for an extra set of hands to help fend off any more hungry bears. It would just be for a little while, after all. Maybe she could slip away before it got too dark. Fay sighed and crossed her arms, then nodded.
“That sounds fine. Lead the way…Jax,” Fay agreed, gesturing at the path ahead.
The Tarnished smiled, brought the halberd back down from her shoulder and began striding forward. Fay elected to follow from several paces behind.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The woman called Fay was suitably sized for a human, Jax noted, with tanned beige skin and loose, brunette hair falling around her shoulders. She was wrapped in black and dark blue fabrics, flecks of white adorning the hem of her navy skirt like stars against a night sky. Her right arm seemed to be overlayed in metal, half-hidden beneath more black wraps. Pretty strange to have armor on just one arm, Jax pondered to herself. Perhaps it was an aesthetic thing.
But the most curious part of this mysterious woman, of course, were the sheer white eyes.
She couldn’t be Tarnished. The gold of grace in the eyes was a tell-tale sign of those who had been chosen to return. So she was human, but she wasn’t undead. And clearly she wasn’t blind. Jax peered back down at the woman as they walked, attempting to gauge any more details of the newcomer.
Indeed, there was a large, jagged scar etched along the smaller woman’s right cheek that Jax hadn’t noticed before. It followed the woman’s neck, disappearing beneath the black collar of her cloak.
A fight? An accident, perhaps? It didn't look like fire, or any kind of weapon she was familiar with, so what…?
Fay eventually noticed the attention, her gaze awkwardly shifting between the Tarnished and her own side.
“Was there…something you needed?” she asked after a momentary pause. Jax’s focus was pulled back to reality.
“Hm? Oh! No, no.” The towering woman righted her gaze, waving her hand as if to clear the air. “There was a, um…a bug,” Jax nodded. “Yep, I saw a bug. It’s gone now though, not to worry.”
Jaxyys made the executive decision that a dense forest filled with runebears was not the place to pry into the lives of strangers she'd met on the road, and so the rest of the trek proceeded rather uneventfully.
The church was run-down and ruined, hardly more than the remains of walls and a towering statue of Queen Marika. But it was safe. A small mote of grace had found its way here, waving wistfully above the grass without a care in the world. Fay strode past it without so much as a glance down. Jax, however, crouched down at the light, running plated fingers through the golden grace. For some reason, the light always felt rejuvenating, filling her body with warmth and tingling her fingers as she touched it.
As Fay settled on the other side of the church, she looked up in surprise, and suspicion, when Jax joined her.
“You're not going to stay over there?” Fay gestured with her head towards the site of grace. Jax, in response, simply laughed.
“Don't be ridiculous. How else am I gonna protect you?” she grinned, already reaching in her pack for supplies to unload.
“...I don't need protection,” Fay muttered, though the Tarnished didn't seem to hear. Instead, she watched as Jax prepared a circle of kindling and wood between them, then snapped her golden fingers. Fire sparked from her hand, enveloping the kindling and immediately setting it aflame.
Satisfied, and only a little smug, Jaxyys wiped her hands together. Blue eyes turned towards the woman across from her.
“Now then, I hope you like roast boar.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The boar ended up getting burnt, so Jax resorted to sharing some of her own store of rations.
“So,” Jax asked, before tearing off a dried piece of liver with her teeth, “what’s your deal?”
Fay looked up from the campfire. “My ‘deal’?”
“Yeah, you know,” the Tarnished woman chewed, then waved the piece of meat in a circle towards her, “who are you, what's with the white eyes, what were you doing in the Mistwood getting attacked by bears…things like that. Your deal.”
Fay tensed. Her eyes flicked nervously elsewhere.
“Well...actually,” she said, fidgeting slightly with her right arm and giving a weak smile, “I’d much rather hear about you. You just seemed so…fascinating.”
Jax’s eyebrows shot up, and she immediately swallowed her bite. “Oho, that is my FAVORITE topic!” she exclaimed, then straightened her back, interlaced her fingers, and cracked her knuckles. “Not to brag, of course, but you better tighten your boot straps, because there is a lot.”
Fay sighed in relief, never so happy to meet someone who loved talking so much.
“It allll started…” Jax waved a hand through the air, setting the scene. Fay stifled the urge to roll her eyes. “...way back when I was conscripted- Actually, wait, let me back up.”
The Tarnished raised a hand and flipped her ponytail, blazing orange in the firelight. “I’m sure you’ve noticed the hair by now? I’ll have you know that I’m actually a descendant of the Fire Giants. One-fifth on my mother’s side,” she paused, bringing a hand to her chin. “Or was it one-sixth…?”
“Is that why you’re so tall?” Fay asked, rather sarcastically.
Jax laughed in response. “Well that, and it’s just one of the perks of being a Lands Between native.” She shrugged. “Handy for pounding people to a pulp, not so handy for going through human-sized doorways.”
“Uh-huh…” Fay half-nodded, definitely not paying full attention. Jaxyys didn’t notice.
“Right, where was I…” she continued. “Ah! Yes. So, I started out my long and arduous career as a knight in the demigod Malenia’s army: the Cleanrots. That’s why I’ve got this,” she pounded a fist on her golden breastplate. “They were the biggest, fiercest army around, and of course I wanted adventure and war, so I swooped right in.”
Jax paused as she absentmindedly rubbed the back of her neck. “What I didn’t realize…were the consequences,” Jax’s voice softened as she reminisced. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the Scarlet Rot?”
Fay nodded somewhat. Jax exhaled.
“Malenia was the wellspring of it. And mortals don’t spend time around that wellspring without…catching it, for lack of a better term,” she looked down at her own hands. “The change was gradual, but inevitable. Decay of the flesh to rot. Those that accepted this fate fought fiercer than the rest of us.”
She paused again, and Fay filled the space. “But you didn’t accept it?”
Jax gave a weak laugh, “I guess I sort of did, at first. I fought, and I stood by Malenia, I made friends, and I killed enemies. And then…the wings grew in.”
Jax twisted her hip and pointed at an area covered by armor.
“Well, I can’t show you right now, but….there’s a couple of scars here, one on each side,” she explained, drawing a horizontal line across the side of her waist on either flank. “That’s what’s left after I ripped them out.”
She sat back down, redjusting her legs to a crossed shape. “I learned that it wasn’t just decay, it was a full corruption. By the time the Rot was done with me, I’d be nothing but a fungus-covered creature walking around in a golden tomb.
By that time, though, the Shattering ensues. It’s all hands on deck; Malenia needs the other shards of the Elden Ring, and she’s marching on the other demigods,” Jax put up her arms in a shrug. “I was in too deep. I had to go. So go to war I did. And believe me, I was a force.” She briefly grinned, pounding her fists together. “I fought alongside that army as hard as I could. And then, I saw…him.”
Fay raised an eyebrow, though her expression remained uninterested. “Him?”
Jax smiled at the air, putting up her hands as if to frame something in the distance. “General Radahn. Two castles tall and a fighting spirit worth ten thousand armies. Took one look at him on the battlefield and thought to myself: ‘Now THAT is a GENERAL.’” She looked back down at Fay, grinning with excitement. “I had to join him. And besides,” she smirked, snapping her fingers, creating a momentary spark of fire, “I already had what they were looking for.”
“So you defected?” Fay asked. Jax nodded and waved a hand.
“Soon as I could. The Redmanes were understandably pretty wary about one of the ‘Rotties’ trying to join them, though. And it didn’t help that by then, the Rot had already started to settle on my body. So, to prove my intentions to them, I took my own fire…and I burned it all off.”
Jax pulled the gauntlet from her left hand, set it aside, and rolled the leather sleeve down the length of her arm. Burn marks of varying degrees covered the upper portion of the otherwise pale skin. The Tarnished held up her now-exposed arm, twisting it in the firelight to show to the other.
“Got these pretty much all over,” she explained, gesturing to her shoulder and back. “Turns out it had set in a lot farther than I thought.”
The Tarnished set the glove aside, allowing her arm to stay bare. “Of course, everything came to a head when Malenia and Radahn had their final battle against each other. None of us were allowed to interfere, so we all watched from the sidelines,” she leaned forward, a look of intensity upon her face. “They go at it. We could feel their swords clash from where we stood. It was…honestly, incredible. Radahn was winning, me and the Reds were celebrating, ready for this war to be over…and that’s when I saw it.”
Jax swallowed, her eyes drifting for a moment as the memory replayed itself in her mind. “The Scarlet Aeonia. I’d seen it before, once, but not on this scale. Malenia was unleashing the full force of the Rot on Radahn, on herself, on all of Caelid. I warn everyone as quick as possible, but for some of us it’s too late. I throw myself in front of as many Redmanes as I can before the thing explodes.”
The soldier lifted her hands, balled into fists, before opening them with a whispered “boom”, then replaced her arms on her knees. “It was too much Rot, too quick. I think they tried dragging me off before it all went black.” Jax gestured to the air with a wave of her hand. “Next thing I know, I’m waking up in some temple, all the Rot gone, and some guy telling me I’m gonna die in obscurity-”
Suddenly, she froze. Fay realized the Tarnished was staring directly at her, expression twisted with surprise and confusion.
“...Uh, Fay?”
Fay blinked back to focus. “What?”
“Is your hair…supposed to do that?”
Fay's eyes went wide. Immediately her hands flew up, realizing she had been so distracted she'd forgotten to put up her hood. She looked down at her hair, taking a length of it between her fingers. Normally brunette strands had already begun to turn white, glowing ethereally against the dark of the evening.
“Of course,” Jax gasped, snapping Fay’s attention back up, “I can't believe I didn't see it before. White eyes and hair that shines like the stars! You're the Alba Fara!” She grinned with excitement. “Fay, you're my Finger Maiden!”
Fay's heart stopped. She quickly looked over at the far site of grace, and its guiding light. A guidance that was pointing straight towards Jax.
The champion knight of two worlds. The one that walks in flame.
Fay groaned, “Oh goddamnit.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“So…you’re supposed to be able to make me stronger or something, right?” Jax looked down at her new Finger Maiden eagerly. “Can you do that now?”
Fay sighed, outwardly rolling her white eyes. “Fine…let’s get it over with…” She held out her hand towards the Tarnished. It almost seemed natural, like a muscle memory her body was already used to. No doubt a byproduct of her encounter with the Two Fingers. “I think you need rune fragments. You got those?”
“Hm? Oh! Yeah, right here…” Jax opened her palm, willing golden light to swirl in the air above it, slowly manifesting into a pile of shimmering fragments. “Will this be enough?’
“Probably,” Fay said flatly, then impatiently beckoned to the other. “Now come on, give me your hand.”
Jax scooted across the ground closer to Fay, holding out the hand containing the fragments and gently extending them in the Maiden’s direction. Despite her apprehension, Fay felt a beat of anxiety. She had no idea what she was doing, or how this was supposed to work. But somehow, she felt like she’d done this a million times before, so she allowed instinct to take the wheel.
“Okay, well…” she mumbled absentmindedly, pulling both arms up to take Jax’s large hand in her own palms. “Here goes…” she closed her eyes and breathed, exhaling slowly and trying to focus on…something. At first, nothing seemed to happen…and then, gradually, Fay became aware of new sensations, as if her perception was beginning to open to Jax’s own.
It was limited, but there. Fay could feel the Tarnished’s physical and spiritual strengths and weaknesses, her mental ability, even her levels of devotion and magical essence. Fay had to admit, it was rather fascinating, this new feeling of awareness.
“Everything, uh…everything okay?” Jax asked, and Fay realized she had been familiarizing herself with this feeling for a moment longer than need be. She risked opening her eyes, and to her relief, the feeling in her mind stayed.
“Oh, uh, yes…yes, everything’s fine,” the Maiden cleared her throat. “Sorry, this is just…all very new to me.”
Jax raised an eyebrow. “Really? They didn’t teach you this in…Finger Maiden school, or whatever?”
Fay gave a sarcastic glance up at the Tarnished. “I dropped out.”
Jax couldn’t help but snort amusedly, and Fay gave the fairest of half-smiles at her own joke. The Maiden looked back down towards the Tarnished’s hand, focusing back on the open perception.
“Alright, well…” Fay mentally prodded at the different attributes of Jax’s essence, feeling about for the weakest one, “it seems you’re lacking a bit in mental fortitude. I’ll go ahead and put the runes towards your mind-”
“Can you make me stronger?” Jax interrupted, a little too eagerly. Fay, once again, cast a scolding glance up at the Tarnished.
“You’re already quite strong enough,” she chided the warrior, “what you need is a stronger mind.”
“Hey, come on, now!” Jax pouted, “My mind’s plenty strong! Sure, I’m not a fancy sorcerer or anything, but-”
“Listen,” Fay’s white eyes glared sternly at the Tarnished. “You need. A stronger. Mind.”
Jax stopped, blinking once at the reprimand and then meekly shifting in position. “Alright, alright, stronger mind it is,” she mumbled.
Fay huffed and nodded in satisfaction, then looked once more at the runes in the other’s palm. She took another deep breath, and attempted to harness the power of the gold, willing it to strengthen the Tarnished.
As she did, both women watched in awe as the golden fragments began to dissipate once more into light, lifting into the air to swirl around their hands. The gold finally fell into Jax’s wrist, disappearing under the scarred skin, and Fay watched the light briefly course through the veins in her arm. The Maiden looked up just in time to see the other’s eyes shimmer with gold, before the effect faded.
Jax exhaled and blinked, shaking her head lightly as her eyes returned to blue. “Woah…” she remarked, “that felt weird.”
Fay gave a small, breathy laugh, retracting her own hands to examine them. “For you and me both.”
As she inspected her hands, her white gaze fell upon the metal prosthetic. Realization sunk in. What was she doing? She had given in to fate. She had just made a Tarnished warrior stronger. The voice of the man from the Hold rang through her mind.
Whatever power you strengthen your Tarnished with whilst alive…cannot compare to the power you’d grant them if they kill you and take it for themselves.
The Tarnished are, after all, here to take.
Fay looked up at Jax, who was currently occupying herself by examining her own hand. The Tarnished quickly noticed the attention, however, and met her gaze.
“Next time it has to be strength, though. I want to see if my muscles actually get any bigger,” she said, gleefully admiring her own biceps. Fay looked back down.
“Right. Next time.”
There couldn’t be a next time. She didn’t want this. This was dangerous. Any moment now that Tarnished would open her eyes and see that there was an easier way, that there was power to be had.
Fay glanced up. She’d been here too long already. All she had to do was slip away, and she’d be free to wander again.
“Well, uh, Jax,” Fay began, fronting a small smile, “you should probably get some rest. I bet that runebear fight took a lot out of you, didn’t it?”
The giant woman’s attention was finally pulled from her own muscles, looking back towards Fay with a look of contemplation.
“You know, now that you mention it, I am a bit tired…” she cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulders, “...but I can take the first watch so you can sleep-”
“No! No, that’s alright,” Fay quickly put up her hands, continuing to force the smile, “I can take the first watch, you get some rest instead. Okay?”
Jax blinked. “Are you sure? I can still stay awake…”
“I insist,” Fay pressed. The Tarnished finally relented with a half shrug and a small smile.
“Alright, well, I can’t say no to that,” she chuckled, reaching for her satchel. The warrior woman withdrew a long, rolled strip of fabric, then carefully draped it over the ground next to her. She looked back up at Fay momentarily. “You sure are taking this whole ‘Maiden’ thing pretty seriously, huh?”
Fay laughed weakly through her teeth. “Yeah…”
She watched the Tarnished intently as the other woman settled herself down, still in full armor, upon the thin blanket. A blanket, Fay noticed, which was half the size needed for this particular Tarnished.
“And don’t forget to wake me for the second watch, alright?” Jax pointed at Fay from the ground. Fay nodded.
“Yeah. Sure.”
Satisfied, the Tarnished finally exhaled and nestled her head into the crook of her still-bare arm, slowly closing her eyes with a peaceful look upon her face.
Fay watched, and waited. The Lands Between fell into a tranquil silence, as the chirp and hum of small insects joined the sound of a dying campfire. She sat still, letting the minutes tick by, watching the Tarnished for any sign of movement or awakening. A breeze passed, rustling her white hair, still glowing brightly against the night.
Slowly, methodically, Fay rose to her feet, reaching for her cloak as she did. She threw the garment around her shoulders, tucking as much of her glowing, white hair into the dark hood as possible. Quickly, and with eerie quietness, she gathered the little belongings she had, all the while glancing over to make sure she hadn’t roused the sleeping giant. To her relief, Jax simply breathed rhythmically, no doubt slumbering peacefully and dreaming of wars to be fought and people to be conquered.
With her satchel acquired and the cloak hiding her from the world, Fay looked around. Her eyes rested upon the grace at the other end of the church, its guiding light still drifting softly towards the sleeping Tarnished.
Fay exhaled through her nose, hesitating for only a moment, before she hugged the cloak around her and quietly stepped away into the night.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was some time before she came across an outpost. It made sense, she supposed, that there weren’t more signs of civilization near the Mistwood. What with the runebears, at all.
Although she had done her best to avoid unwanted attention, this particular outpost happened to span the entirety of the road. And she was tired, so tired, and the encampment was at least fortified against giant bears and giant bats and things. As long as she wasn’t careless, she could tuck into a corner somewhere to get some rest.
Fay kept her head low, and her hood lower. She approached cautiously, trying to act as nonchalant as possible. A tall knight in tattered orange and green garb kept watch in front of the road, and at the woman’s approach, raised his partisan spear and shield in her direction.
“HALT!” he commanded. Fay stopped. “State your business.”
“Just passing through,” she answered, raising her hands somewhat to show that she was unarmed. “I’m looking for a safe place to rest until sunrise, if you can spare a corner.”
The knight “humphed” in response as he considered the traveler before him. The butt of his spear rested back against the grass with a dull thud. Moments of tense silence passed, and a beat of nervousness coursed through her mind. Was she too suspicious? Perhaps she should turn back…
She finally breathed a sigh of relief as the guard moved out of the way. He quickly gestured his head towards the interior of the encampment.
"Just stay away from the tents. And don't cause trouble," he instructed. Fay moved past him, never lifting her gaze, but nodding silently as she was allowed in.
A small number of foot soldiers sat around campfires, voices hushed. Fay suspected the other half were already asleep. A few cast glances her way, but none approached, and the maiden quietly made her way to the opposite end of the makeshift outpost.
“...less and less new Tarnished….” Fay managed to catch a drifting conversation as she walked. “The search parties keep coming back empty-handed.”
“Mm. Lord Godrick's not gonna…”
Their words faded as Fay passed them by. They seemed distracted, which was good. The less attention on her, the better.
She'd be on her way at first light. Where she'd go…she still wasn't quite sure. Anywhere, as long as it was away from here. Far away from here.
A light tug on her cloak broke her thoughts. She stiffened, then immediately looked down. A large, shaggy dog was circling her feet, sniffing at the base of the cloak. Fay forced herself to stay calm as she tried to step away.
"Easy…" she coaxed, trying not to instigate the animal.
The dog, however, didn't seem to care, as it bit down on the fabric, and tugged again.
“No,” Fay told the dog, reaching down to pull the cloak back. “No, bad dog- Come on, let go-”
The dog remained unrelenting, its jaws clenching the fabric tightly. It growled lightly, tugging its head back, trying to take the fabric with it.
Fay went to pull the cloak away again, when she felt something rather rock-like beneath her foot. Her foot slipped. White eyes widened. A brief, panicked “oh no” shot through her mind, right before she lost her balance and fell backwards onto the ground.
Fay sat up immediately, reaching for her hood, but it was too late.
The company of soldiers had their heads turned, all eyes on the sudden white glow coming from the mysterious woman's now-exposed hair.
A moment of realization settled…and everything stopped.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Somewhere nearby, a troll bellowed.
Jax’s eyes snapped open. She gasped and sat up immediately, an armored hand already halfway on its way to grasp at the halberd by her side. It took a moment for reality to overcome instinct, and the ex-soldier sighed heavily as she realized the threat was perfectly far enough away. She couldn’t help but laugh at herself. Some things never changed.
She bent her head and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. As her mind registered her surroundings, she remembered the day, the bear, the Maiden. Right! The Finger Maiden was keeping watch.
“Don’t worry, Fay,” she yawned, “if that thing comes near I’ll chase it off, alright?”
The hum of insects responded. A moment of silence passed. Then another, then another. Jaxyys stopped rubbing her face, her eyes opening wide as her eyebrows knit in concern. She looked up immediately, scanning the area.
It was quiet, and empty. The campfire was dead. The Maiden was gone, along with her cloak and her belongings. Jax rose to her feet, coming to the realization that she was completely alone.
“Fay?”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
And then, in a split second, everything snapped.
The soldiers leapt into action, swords drawn. Fay tried to scramble to her feet, tried to run, but the dog had re-clamped its jaws on the maiden's cloak, and this time it wasn't letting go easily.
“Sergeant! You're gonna want to see this!”
“By the gods, is her hair glowing?!”
“Wait, I’ve heard of this…The maiden with the white hair and eyes. They say she's cursed!”
“Whoever she is, she's clearly got some kind of magic,” the decorated knight keeping post at the front stormed his way onto the center of the encampment. He briskly pointed at the foot soldiers. “Capture her alive, we bring her to Lord Godrick in the morning. Maybe he'll be happy with something shiny to graft."
They slowly began to close in. Fay raised her foot and kicked at the dog’s snout, finally loosening the animal from her cloak. She sprang to her feet, and immediately spun to dash in the other direction, but froze as a tent flap behind her burst open, revealing another handful of awakened guards, all wielding swords.
She was surrounded. Fay put her hands out before her, backing up slowly and turning back towards the soldiers with their knight.
“Easy, girl…" the Sergeant stalked forward, spear at the ready. "We can bring you back in one piece or several, doesn't matter to me. So just play along quiet-"
BOOM!!
A wild explosion from the tent behind her sent the soldiers off their feet. Immediately cries went up and soldiers scattered, some reaching for weapons and others rushing to fetch water. Just as the decorated knight turned to see the commotion, Fay watched as a ball of fire razed through the night sky, crashing down in the area in front of her with a wave of heat. Instinctively, she held her hands up over her eyes at the sudden light, hearing the sounds of men screaming and a dog whining.
A large hand grabbed her wrist, and her brain instantly surged. She gasped, dropping her hands and immediately reaching for the arm that had grabbed her, ready to defend herself, when…
“Hey, hey! Easy, it’s me!”
Her heart was pounding as her sight adjusted. Jaxyys stared back at her, blue eyes tinged with gold, holding her wrist.
“Do you want to stay here?”
Fay’s quickened breath sped through her lungs. She looked at the Tarnished with wide, white eyes, wondering why she was here, why she had come.
“Fay, do you want to stay here?”
Still stunned, Fay simply shook her head. The Tarnished nodded in return.
“Okay,” she loosed her grip on the Maiden and rose from where she had been kneeling. “Just stay behind me,” the Tarnished instructed, before turning completely around to face the fray.
Fay set her jaw, white eyes scanning the soldiers. By then, the Godrick Knight had recovered, and had noticed the newcomer standing in front of his quarry. He had just enough time to shout to his men before the blade of a halberd slammed into him with the force of a giant behind it, throwing him off balance and onto the ground.
At once, soldiers surged forward. Red flames burst from Jax's weapon as she reared it back, and swung it before the incoming soldiers. The flames ripped forth in a rolling tide. Soldiers cried out in both alarm and agony, some of them catching ablaze and screaming as they burned within their armor.
A shout rose up from behind her, and Jax’s head snapped towards the sound. She shoved the halberd backwards, causing a charging soldier to ram his nose directly into the butt of the weapon. Another shout came from in front, coupled with the sound of the flat side of a halberd ringing against his helmet.
The soldier behind her, however, quickly recovered, and raised his sword once more to strike. Jax attempted to turn and block the oncoming blow, but her reaction was too slow. The soldier’s sword swung towards the giant woman, aimed straight for her leg, when suddenly a metal fist shot out, colliding with the man’s face with a sharp BANG. Fay’s arm stayed straightened for the moment it took for the soldier’s head to snap to the side, groan, and crumple to the ground, before she retracted it and flexed her fingers.
Jax blinked in surprise. She looked down at Fay with a half-open mouth, as if she had something to say, before her eyes suddenly darted to the Maiden’s side.
“Fay, behind-!”
Fay felt a rough hand on her shoulder. Adrenaline shot through her like an arrow. In the blink of an eye, her hand was up, gripping the wrist behind her and yanking it forward. She bent her knee, arching her back, and letting the soldier cry out in alarm as Fay sent him flying above her.
Just as he hit the ground, another soldier shouted and swung his sword at the white-haired maiden. Fay dodged with uncanny speed, glowing hair trailing behind her like a comet. She grabbed his wrist, twisted, and rammed her metal elbow beneath his chin, producing a satisfying crack from his teeth.
Before he could scream, Fay turned her body, dragging the poor soldier, and his extended sword, with her. She thrust the man’s arm forward, just as another of his comrades was coming to his aid. The sword sank immediately into the other’s throat, and the aiding soldier's sword in turn stabbed its way into the chest of Fay’s captive. With an echoing deathly gurgle, the two collapsed to the ground.
“...Serosh’s bloody breath,” Jax remarked, watching the display with shock, “where’d you learn to do that!?”
Fay exhaled as she regained her bearings, shaking out her arm. “Finger Maiden school.”
The towering Tarnished chuckled, still breathless form exertion, flipping the halberd in her palms. “Well, I think that’s the last of th- AUGH!”
She cried out, arching her back and gritting her teeth. The head of a spear poked out from between the layers of golden metal armor, piercing the giant’s side. The knight of Godrick behind her gave a low chuckle from beneath his helmet, then ripped the spear from the Tarnished with a merciless tug. Jax gasped, then coughed, stumbling as she put a gauntlet to her pierced hide.
Without leaving a moment open to recover, the Knight raised the partisan once more to stab at her. Jax turned her head, ready to accept her fate, when a flash of white dashed before her eyes. She saw Fay’s leg kick up, knocking the spear off course and almost out of the knight’s grip. She planted her boot, spun, and kicked at the knight again, this time nailing him in the abdomen and driving him stumbling backwards.
Pure white eyes shot up towards the Tarnished. “That’s your cue.”
Jax took only half a second to process the order, and nothing more. She twisted, blazing halberd in her grasp, sending it surging forward over Fay’s head. The Knight’s cry of alarm was cut off by a gurgle as the point of her polearm was skewered through the slit in his helmet.
Finally, for a moment, there was quiet. Fay ducked out of the way. Jax heaved, gripping her polearm, holding it there for a moment or two before finally pulling it from the knight’s face, producing a brief splay of blood and allowing him to fall lifelessly to the ground. With a sharp breath and a groan, she collapsed to one knee, using the pole of the halberd to steady herself.
Fay turned towards her, looking down at where the Tarnished was holding her hip.
“Are you alright?” she asked quickly, trying not to let concern creep into her voice. Jax tried to chuckle before she coughed again.
“Yeah! Oh yeah,” she wheezed, briefly removing her hand from the wound to wave it dismissively. “Happens all the time.”
Her confidence, unfortunately, seemed to do nothing for the red blood pouring from the wound. Fay couldn’t help but feel a strange sensation, as if her body knew it had to do something. Something she had never done, and yet had done a million times before.
Quickly, she reached into her bag and withdrew the small symbol of the Two Fingers. Without thinking, she gripped it between her palms, took a deep breath, and focused.
At her actions, a large golden symbol appeared at their feet. Jax looked down. Fay also looked down. Then, they both looked up, meeting each other’s eyes in pure confusion.
Light swirled through the air, dancing about, until it finally fell on a path towards Jax’s side. The light slipped beneath her fingers, and as the Tarnished cautiously removed her hand, both women could see the golden light stitching the flesh back together, even sealing the hole in the armor.
Jax’s breathing steadied as the spell slowly began to fade. She stayed looking down at her side, examining it with wonder.
“Huh…” she gave a breathy laugh, then looked to Fay with a half-smile, “Thanks. Guess we’re even now, eh?”
Fay gave no response, simply electing to avoid the other’s eyes and stare at the symbol in her hands. In the silence, the Tarnished stood, and Fay finally raised her gaze.
“Well, uh…” Jax cleared her throat. She looked down at Fay. Fay looked back, her expression completely unreadable. Jax rubbed a golden-clad hand through her undercut. "We should probably head off before more soldiers come by and notice the damage."
Fay still remained silent, turning her gaze over the now-empty and half-burnt campsite full of corpses. A clink of metal pulled her attention back forward. Jax had already turned, and was walking away, alone, towards the road.
Fay sighed in resignation, "...Wait."
Jax looked back. The Maiden offered no elaboration, simply stepping up next to the Tarnished. As Jax began to walk again, so too did Fay accompany her at her side. The taller woman appraised the white-haired maiden with surprise, as if she hadn't expected her to follow. Even so, she kept quiet, and eventually her gaze was set forward once more.
The night dragged on as the two walked. Awkward silence settled like a thick sheet of snow, practically suffocating the atmosphere. The only sound that punctuated the heavy air was the gentle clank of armor and the rhythmic thumping of a halberd on dirt as Jax walked.
“...So…” the Tarnished’s voice eventually broke the uneasy silence, “...why’d you run off?”
Fay looked down at her feet, saying nothing.
“Was it…something I did?” Jax asked, a hint of guilt in her voice. “If I said something to offend you I didn’t mean-”
“No,” Fay finally said, though she didn’t raise her eyes. “...No, no, you didn’t do anything.”
Silence settled again. Fay could feel the Tarnished looking down at her, probably full of questions, yet not asking any of them. The Maiden sighed, becoming weary of the tension.
“I just…” she trailed off. Jax said nothing. Fay looked down at her hands, rubbing a thumb over her metal prosthetic. “I haven’t…had the best experiences with Tarnished.”
“...Ah,” Jax simply replied. Behind the small response, though, Fay knew there was a deeper question left unasked.
If you don’t like Tarnished, why did you become a Finger Maiden?
The oppressive silence persisted. Fay was glad for the lack of questions, though she could do without the awkward air. After several moments, she decided to at least voice one of her questions.
“How did you find me?”
“Oh, uh…” Jax traced her index finger in an arc through the air, “...guidance.”
Fay inwardly sighed. Right. Of course. Grace. She stared back down at the ground.
“...But why did you come for me?”
Jax finally gave somewhat of a chuckle, a positive sound to disperse some of the quiet, “Well, you’re my Finger Maiden. We’re supposed to be a team. I had to make sure you were safe.” She shrugged. "And besides, if I can't save one damsel in distress, then I'm going to make for a terrible Elden Lord."
Fay finally looked up at the Tarnished with a cynical eye. "So that's what this is really about, is it? You're trying to become Elden Lord."
"Going to," Jax corrected, raising a finger. "I'm going to become Elden Lord.” She then gave a sheepish smile, shrugging somewhat. "Now, admittedly, I've just been informed that that was an option, so I don't have the plan totally set in stone yet. But the way I see it, as long as the Elden Ring’s shattered and there’s no one to lead, someone has to step up. Otherwise all of this…" Jax gestured to the night-covered surroundings, “well, who’s gonna fix it if I don’t?”
Fay surveyed the Tarnished with a contemplative look. “You…actually want to fix the Lands Between?”
“Well, yeah," Jax smiled down at Fay. “It’s not a complete lost cause yet, right? I know there’s probably a lot of work to be done, but there’s still some life left. All it needs is a little spark,” she grinned and snapped, lighting the air between them with a quick burst of fire, “and we’ll get this place kicking in no time.”
Fay gave a semi-amused scoff through her nose, righting her gaze on the road ahead. In the distance, over the rolling hills, the darkened sky was slowly giving way to the orange-yellow of sunrise. A new day, slowly dawning before their eyes. The Alba Fara looked down at her hair. The white strands were fading, gradually settling back into brunette. In a quiet moment of contemplation, Fay touched her hair, feeling it between her fingers, and sighing deeply.
“And…listen,” Jax’s voice again filled the quiet. Fay looked back up. “I don’t know what your past is like - and you don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to - but if you don’t want to stay here and do this whole Maiden thing…” the Tarnished gestured vaguely between them, “...you know, I'm not gonna force you to."
Jax sheepishly rubbed at her orange undercut and chuckled slightly. "Just, let me know ahead of time and don't disappear in the middle of the night, alright?"
Fay couldn't help but give a somewhat guilty laugh. "I'll be sure to leave a note next time."
Jax snickered in response. Fay, lips in a contented smile, looked towards the coming sunrise. Maybe, just maybe, there was hope after all. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
“So,” Fay glanced up, “where are we going?”
Jax’s eyes brightened, sparkling with internal gold. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I am starving. What do you say we kick off our new adventure with a nice relaxing crab hunt, eh?”
Fay crossed her arms with an amused scoff. “Fine. But I’m cooking this time. Any more burnt boar meat and you’ll be looking for a new Finger Maiden.”
“Deal,” Jax laughed.
And with the sunrise before them, the two strode side by side, Tarnished and Finger Maiden, their fates aligned.