Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Chapter 3: Irina

"I-I can't be sure what it is, exactly... my eyesight's been weak since birth you see. B-But I swear, I heard frightful howling from all over!"

In her slightly risen tone and panic, this mysterious stranger does not grab her and shake her, or growl angrily at her, or rebuke her. Instead, his other hand comes up. He takes each of her hands in both of his and rubs soothing circles with his gloved thumbs into the backs of them. Irina's shaking slowly abates, and though she whimpers, it's a whimper of relief... like a pressure is being released from her through his actions.

"... My good father secreted me out of the castle, but in turn decided himself to say. He says... he says it's his duty, as commander. He said he couldn't come with me j-just yet."

Irina squeezes her unseeing eyes tightly shut as water pinpricks at them. She will not cry. She must not cry. Not before she gets her request out. There's a letter, on her person. Not one written recently, but back at the castle, carefully and slowly, to make sure it was just right. When she'd found out that her father was staying while she would be forced to go, she'd began writing it.

She'd intended to leave it for him in a place he would find it, but then... but then things had changed more rapidly than any had foreseen, and she'd been bustled out of the castle and onto a wagon with the letter still on her person. She needed to get it to him. She needed him to know how much she cared, how much she loved him. And she knew, within her heart of hearts, that this stranger was her only hope.

"I... I fear for father's life, good sir. The servants are full of wrath. Filled with hatred for every last one of us, you see. They've since come for every one of the companions I escaped with. They haven't spared a soul."

Irina whimpers and tucks her chin into her chest for a moment to contain the tears threatening to spill forth.

"I f-fear it's not any different at Castle Morne... p-please! I implore you, take this letter to my father, at the castle. Let him know my sole wish is that he escape, even if his honor need be the price! Please... I just want him to be safe..."

Pulling her hands free of his and taking the letter out from her skirts, Irina holds it out in one trembling hand in the direction she knows the armored stranger is. Her breath catches as she waits to see what he will do. When his hand comes up... and gently pushes hers down, Irina's heart sticks in her throat, and she feels a crushing sort of despair as she hangs her head.

"O-Of course. I understand. It's out of the way and-!"

Abruptly, she finds herself pulled off of the rock and onto her feet. Sightless eyes widen, as she teeters back and forth for a moment before finding her footing. The blind woman had been sat on that rock, waiting for the end, for who knows how long. Certainly not her. Before her, she can feel the man turning away from her... and crouching down in front of her?

"I don't... I don't quite understand. W-What do you want from me, good sir?"

Still, he does not speak. Rather, instead Irina finds herself yelping as she's suddenly scooped up. Still clutching her letter to her father in one hand, the young woman nevertheless instinctively throws her arms forward, around the neck of the armored man who's come across her. To her great shock, she finds herself clinging to his back, held aloft by his hands as they reach back and circle around her legs, gripping at her thighs.

... It's a very intimate grip he has of her, even as she clings to his back for dear life. A blind woman with her feet off the ground? She's never been more out of sorts. This is... this is hard, and she can't help but whimper, even as the man shifts from foot to foot as if getting used to her weight.

"What is the m-meaning of this, sir? You want... you wish to t-take me with you? I'm not entirely sure it's s-safe. The servants... they are a rowdy bunch. Violent and... and just awful. P-Perhaps it would be better if I just stayed here, while you delivered my letter."