Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Chapter 42: Malenia, Millicent

A/N: Malenia: "Whoa, beating me silly and sticking a needle in me does NOT give you leave to teleport me to strange places. Where even are we? Why does it smell like blood?"

Tarnished: ":-]"

-x-X-x-

She realizes what the Tarnished is doing a moment too late to stop it. As he cradles both her and the mimicry close to him, he grips down tightly on that blood-red medallion... and a swirl of energy warps around them. Stiffening, Malenia couldn't halt it if she tried. She hadn't known the teleport was coming, and so she's unable to react in any meaningful fashion.

By the time she can drag her tired, beaten body out of the Tarnished's grasp and away from him, they're already somewhere else. Somewhere that is decidedly NOT Miquella's Haligtree. Any good will, any gratitude that Malenia, Blade of Miquella, felt towards the Tarnished evaporates in an instant, her face twisting into a rictus of a snarl.

His good will with her did NOT stretch this far!

"How dare you... how DARE you!"

The Tarnished just smiles at her sadly, waiting almost patiently. Did he not know what he'd done? Did he not understand how he had wronged her? The Haligtree, husk that it had become, was the ONLY place for her. Not only was it far enough away from the rest of the world that Malenia wouldn't have to worry should she be forced to release the Rot again... as he'd made her do with his overwhelming power... but it was also the only place she could expect her brother to return to.

Miquella would keep his promise. He would not abandon her. She just had to wait for him. But now... now she didn't even know where she was! Only that it was NOT the Haligtree! Rather, a glance around shows them to be deep, DEEP beneath the earth. The place is covered in a twilight shadow of eternal night and smells deeply of blood besides. Blood... and something else.

Malenia twitches, her head cocking to the side in confusion. The Tarnished who had defeated her, spared her, and inserted the needle in order to give her back her sanity, continues to smile softly, as if... as if he knew it was only a matter of time before she calmed down. The other, the doppelganger that looks so much like her, is a bit smarter about things. She has her sword out and is holding it in a defensive stance, ready to try and defend her Lord even if it gets her killed.

Admirable to say the least. But... Malenia does not flow forward. She does not attack. She wants to, for one long drawn-out moment. Even knowing it would be suicide to fight him in her current state, or in any state really, she is tempted to attack him for this grave insult of tearing her away from her constant vigil. Miquella could return to the Haligtree at any moment, now that she was gone. And she would not be there to greet him.

... And yet... and yet... there's something she's missing. Something twinging at the edge of her senses. This place. Why does it feel familiar to one such as her? It stinks of accursed blood. The Rot holds no dominion here. Indeed, the claim clearly belongs to another. But then, why does it feel so familiar? She has never been here before. She has-

Sis...ter...

In an instant, Malenia's head jerks to the side. Her brother's voice, not even a whisper, formless and utterly absent of anything resembling life, nevertheless nestles into her ear like a long lost bedfellow. It's near-enough to make her weep, both in joy and horror. Never before has Miquella seemed so weak. And yet... and yet, it's enough.

Whipping around, facing away from the Tarnished and the mimicry, Malenia stares up the palace steps before her. Now that she knows she's looking for HIM... it's all too easy to feel his presence. That was what was so familiar about this unfamiliar, vile place. Her brother was here. And not by any choice of his own.