Marika
"I have been meaning to ask," the golden queen started as the trio walked up the crooked and broken stairwell, "this place is bathed in moon blessing. Why do you seem unaffected?"
Her knight chuckled from beside the large red wolf. "That would be because I am not a moon worshipper. I seek her council and wisdom, as too I do the goddesses of Nyx and Hestia, who embody Night and the Hearth." Her knight answered and drew on Marika's thirst for knowledge. She heard a light wolfy grunt nearby but became too fixated on her knight to pay attention.
"I do not know these names." She said inquisitively.
"No, they have no hold in these lands. Your moon is beautiful, too, but her wisdom is young compared to the one I listen to at home."
"You speak with a rather authoritative voice on gods and their wisdom." She raised a brow as she smiled.
"Well, I -" was all her knight could get out before making a loud grunt of pain as the charging shield rammed into her chest.
Having been led back around to the priorly broken stairwell and led atop, the wolf had strangely vanished during their idle chatter. They had walked into a small courtyard where a knight, who was currently helping Marika's knight get acquinted with the wall, guarded a nearby elevator.
"Rude." Her knight grunted out as she pushed back the opposing knight, just as Marika's grip threw them off and across the courtyard by the shoulder with a growl.
"Quite." She answered in a huff as she pulled up and gripped her mace. Her knight slowly drew out that long, remade scythe of hers. It had been entirely recrafted into a sleek faint S shape along its hilt, with a gear at the head. A chain connected both the handle and the gear with the ability to snap shift its angle. The edge gleamed painfully with a frosty glow of the ice enchantment it had been bestowed woth, curtesy of Iji. It was an intimidating update to the small and weak piece of trash she had brought back initially.
"Let us show them proper etiquette." She rushed forward, scythe pulled back as Marika began a chant. The opposing knight raised their shield, only for the biting blade of the scythe to slash around and dig into their helmet before its blade snapped down and bit into their shield. With a yank, the shield was thrown across the courtyard and followed up with a hacking slash as the scythe head snapped to a vertical, warscythe like position. The opposing knight caught it with a skilled swipe of their own blade before it glowed and slashed in a thick, wide arc.
Her knight grunted as she was slashed, a gush of red briefly peeking out near her right hip. Thankfully, a swig of red tears erased it as Marika ended her chant. "Be still." Her voice a boom that rattled glass and metal alike as thick binding rings suddenly pinned the knight in place. The image was as if binding threads of light had frozen the knight in time mid second swing. It only held for a couple of seconds, but it would not need longer as the knight's scythe snapped to its original angle and fell around the opposing knights neck.
"Rest in peace." She spoke softly as a single focused swipe turned the opposing knight to glistening gold, fading away.
"We must be very close to Rennala." The queen spoke, taking a long drink from her own blue tears. The spell was new and far too taxing. She doubted many enemies would give her a chance to use it as readly.
"Definitely. They were strong. I think we only managed because they didn't expect two foes to come at the same time." Her knight wiped down her blade before folding it down into a small pole that rested on her hip. "Rennala herself likely won't be as receptive to Linebreaker."
"Linebreaker." The queen said with a deadpan voice.
"... yes. His name is Linebreaker."
"Really."
"What??"
"You..." The queen sighed in exasperation but smiled none the less. "I think it's cute."
"You do???" If she had a tail, the queen would swear it was wagging.
"Yes." She said with a soft chuckle.
Her knight beamed with joy for the rest of the walk as they headed onto the small elevator the opposing knight had guarded. It rumbled like most as they stepped onto its central tile. It made her giggle a little at how much joy that little thing brought her knight.
Luna
When she began to giggle on the elevator, the knight could almost feel her hearts falling to pieces. It was such a cute little giggle that seemed so honest. She only hoped to draw many more giggles like that out before the journey's end.
When the elevator finally came to an end, they were greeted with two massive stone doors that seemed to seal away a chamber of some kind.
"This must be where they put her away..." the queen said with clear sorrow in her voice. The sound alone ran mayhem on the knight's thoughts. Both in the clear implication, as well as the pain, it clearly brought her ward.
"Then let us free the queen of Caria once more." Stepping towards the doors, she placed her hands on both and began to push. They were heavy, but soon they gave way and revealed a brief walkway leading into a beautifully filled library. In the center of the main circular room sat Rennala herself, cradling an amber egg.
She was stunning, though the knight would hesitate to call her purely beautiful. Skin so pale that it began to border on unhealthy and translucent with thick blue scholarly robes that obscured any knowledge of her health beyond a glimpse at her hands and face. Her black hair was mostly hidden by a large crescent hat that reminded one of a golden moon.
She was surrounded by smaller versions of herself at a glance. All with seemingly hazy smiles and little scholar caps. They crawled towards her before fading and seemingly reforming near the edge in an endless cycle of start and end. It was a little miserable to watch, especially with how Rennala seemed to be the source. She even seemed gleeful.
"Shhhh little ones... I shall remake you in due time..." her voice filled the room despite sounding like a soft whisper. She had truly become deranged in this cage. The sight brought the knight back to her own days in a cage. Sweat began to form across her brow while a voice echoed over and over.
'I will remake you.'
Marika
She did not understand why. Only that something in that moment caused her knight to slowly fall over with a clutched hand to her head. She was sobbing, and Marika knelt down beside her in an attempt to comfort her. However, she could tell that the knight was beyond her words. Perhaps a spell Rennala had to protect herself with a horrible illusion that the gilded queen had somehow avoided or had immunity from. A part of her suspected the latter, even if it may have been an unintentional flaw.
She made sure her knight was not laid in a bad place before standing with a deep breath. Slowly removing her blue hood and letting the thick golden braid, that so often acted as a signature to her unravel. It fell along her shoulder and glowed with the faint hint of what remained of her divinity.
"Lady Rennala. I come to speak with thee as Queen of the Golden Order and God of these lands." Slowly, this did garner Rennala's attention. Gentle, tired eyes slowly met with golden onrs. A heavy sorrow and pain lingered within the moon witch's eyes that made Marika ache deep inside.
"You..." as the moon witch began to rise, "Dare." Her anger was very evident as she once more stood like the towering figure Marika had once remembered her to be. The room wavered and rippled before they were once more at that moment.
A long, crystal lake where the both of them stood. Behind Marika rose the golden Erdtree. Behind Rennala, her beloved glistening moon.
She felt her body begin to move, but at no will of her own. The feeling was of a grim familiarity that she had prayed to never again feel. Her hand gripped onto a thick hammer that her eyes remembered far too well. Stonelike and runically blessed by the Greater Will. She felt her body ripple with muscles beyond what she normally had and felt weight in all the wrong places.
She felt male. When her eyes turned to take in herself, all she saw was the floors of a cage. She felt her own arms grip onto the hammer, but she could not stop it. She felt the lash of magic crashing over her skin and the spray of blood of incantations and stone struck magic and flesh. She felt the burn of exhaustion as every swing nearly tore her muscles apart.
She could not feel a way to make it stop. All she could do was let put a horrible cry of fear as this cage soon began to remind her of an urn.
When she screamed, Rennala seemed to hear her. There was a pause that Marika felt in the fighting as she felt some tangible grip come back. She willed at that feeling, fighting to strengthen it as the hammer crashed and faded away after falling to the water beneath. Two rough hands gripped flailing red locks as a roar tore at the edges of the water all around them and repelled the wolf spirits that had been lunging, turning then instantly to dust once more.
She could hear Rennala calling her name, or was it another name? Her mind could only piece together the gentle affection there as she tore and bite at her cage. She screamed inside, feeling His anger but refusing to let it burn her into submission.
With a final shriek of defiance, she felt Him once more become locked tight inside that cage with a gilded lock on its bars now. As her vision finally began to clear and she could see the results of His fury, she was astonished to feel Rennala's hand on her cheek.
"It really is you..." her gentle voice soothed the aches that were slowly melting from her flexing and reshaping veins. Her body returning to her true feminine self burned, yet her voice and touched did so much to soothe her. It brought her back to the days when He was only a mask she wore.
"My King.. You have finally come home..." she sniffled shakily as she caressed Marika's cheek with her thumb. "Oh, how I missed you..."
"Rennala... I -"
"I always knew the truth of what you were. The moon tells all secrets that others may keep to their darkest chambers."
"You... and you still..." the goddess felt tears threatening to form as all the memories she had thought hollow, painted by a mask thay had grown resentful of its host, became as whole and sincere as the summer bloom.
"I spent all these centuries perfecting a way to help you. It is not yet done... and even now... I feel the edge of my mind beginning to falter again. The moon can make one so very mad with her beauty, but it will be beautiful and perfect for my wife someday." The word wife sent a terrible chill through Marika and made those tears spill free. They wet the hand of her beloved Rennala.
"I had always thought you loved only He, and never I.." she wept as she gripped onto Rennala's wrist and held firmly to it as her face buried itself in her caressing palm.
"You are one, the dark and the light. I loved and love all of you, Marika. Even if circumstances dictate, I can no longer harbor your ring." Her words were equally tender as they were sad, and the sound made the golden queen's heart ache with a love she never knew she had yearned to fulfill.
"Surely we can -" a single finger rested against her lips, silenced the coming pleading.
"The moon has me now, but I will leave you with a parting gift. The last vestiges of my love returned." As the Queen of Caria rested an amber pendant in the palm of her golden queen. It beautifully glistened in the twin lights. "A golden vow to someday return to you. Keep this close, and the horse will never again become the king." Closing Marika's hand around the pendant with a tender touch.
The queen softly clutched the small gift against her heart. "Will you remember?" She asked with a gaze aimed towards her once beloved giantess.
"No... but you will." She said sadly, followed by a soft smile. "So promise me to love her as much as you once did I."
Marika was struck by the clear implication, yet she could do little to deny what had been blossoming rapidly inside her. "I will... even if it must be at a distance. I promise you that, one final time, Rennala."
The moon witch smiled down to her, eyes glistening with the last rays of joy and love they would ever share. "When at last the Erdtree's light no longer obscures the moon, I shall take you in and remake you as you always should have been. That is the promise of all Caria, beneath its beloved moon."
"Then I promise to return and give back to beauty of these lands to Caria, and never again let war tear apart our homes. For as long as I draw breath." She kissed Rennala's hand one last time as the promise was settled, and the lake began to fade away.
As sight returned, Rennala was once more sat on her pillows while cradling her amber egg. Soft whispers the only sound while all the strange remade bodies had disappeared for now. She saw her knight sat beside a small book shelf and chugging some water out of her canteen, but otherwise looked safe.
There would be so much to discuss, and she was not sure if she was ready. Clutching the amber pendant before placing it among the layers of her scarfed hood, she affirmed to herself that she would not let fear control her anymore. The glow of her pendant seemed to share ber confidence, and put a smile on her face.
Their journey would be worth it in the end. As gold lay on blue, she felt the stutter in her chest turn to a peaceful calm security, and that was when she knew it was more than just smoldering affections.
She truly was in love with her knight. For all the good and evil that fact would bring, she knew she could deny that no longer. She would be ready.