20 Dark Souls: Soul-Bound

The serpents form flickered like a faulty lightbulb, with the silver covetous ring destroyed she was just a soul and she couldn't remain sentient for long without succumbing to the laws of this world, becoming just another witless soul for Drake's ring to absorb.

Arihisia pleaded as her eyes darted back and forth between Drake and his ring. "Thisss one hasss a humble requessst, I am without form and require housssing. Allow me boarding in that ring of yoursss, ss-some ss-souls to regain my ss-strength, and in return, I offer you my aid."

Drake was still unsure, it would be a big risk letting her near the ring as it was his main source of strength currently but neither did he want to let this possibly innocent she-snake die for nothing.

He came to a decision.

"I'm sorry," Drake apologized, "I just can't take the risk."

There was too much at stake for him to fumble the ball here, he would just have to harden his heart and after all, what was one sin on his conscience compared to the saving of his world.

The spectral serpent reared up into a coil. "Ss-stupid human, fine you win, I had hoped not to have to do thisss, but you left me with no choicesss," Arihisia hissed angrily.

Drake pulled up his shield and uchigatana, preparing himself for a fight but the silver serpent was too fast, it sprang forth darting past his defenses and tunneled straight into his forehead.

Everything went black.

Drake was not dead, no, but he did feel like he was dying, as countless fragmented memories were forcefully taken by Arihisia, with each memory taken one was left in its place.

She was melding their souls forming a soul-bound bond, it was her only way of recourse, as the Darksign ring would consume her otherwise. By connecting their souls, the ring would recognize her as part of the host soul and stop attacking her.

This was not a pleasant process though as Arihisia had essentially torn off a piece of her soul to forcefully form this bond. It was extremely painful for both parties.

Drake and Arihisia screamed as their memories, minds, and souls were shattered and shared.

Drake received flashes of Arihisia's memories and they painted out the story of her life.

In the age of ancients, she had been born from nature along with nine other serpents.

With similar forms, the primordial serpents considered themselves as half-kin of the ancient dragons, but they were rejected, and the dragons declared Arihisia and her siblings as defective, amounting them to be nothing more than failed dragons.

The primordial serpents had not the impenetrable scales nor the majestic strength that the dragons possessed, so they were treated like the hollow-kin, a lesser race, becoming nothing but slaves under the dragon's tyrannical rule. It was true that the primordial serpents were weaker but that did not mean they were lesser and in return for them not receiving the gifts the heavens had bestowed upon the dragons, they received remarkable cunning and incredible patience.

And so they waited, waited as millennia passed by, waited until the beginnings of a new age.

With the disparity caused by the first flame, the hollows gained power and from the shadows, the primordial serpents manipulated them as they both sought to overthrow the dragons.

During a near-endless war, the primordial serpents guided the hollow lords to victory and only then truly came the next age, the age of fire.

If Arihisia had any good memories then they were created in the age of fire.

She and her siblings were considered as hidden advisors to the lords and she and her kin prospered during that time, not having to live in fear or hide away from the tyranny of the dragons.

But all things eventually come to pass and the fire started to wane.

Arishia and her siblings panicked, the dying of the fire could bring with it an unpredictable new world, a world where they could once again be at the bottom of the food chain.

The panic divided them and Arishia's siblings quarreled among themselves.

Frampt her eldest brother wanted to cling to the age of fire and so he manipulated Gwyn into sustaining it, meanwhile, Kaathe her youngest brother had grown bored of the unchanging existence they had grown accustomed to and desired for the challenges that the new age would bring.

Frampt was foolish and Kaathe was reckless, they did not fight it out as the dragons would, considering themselves superior, so they decided to make it a battle of wit and cunning, Arishia's brothers each attempted to guide an undead to either relight the flame or let it die out.

Again and again, it was a stalemate the fire sometime dwindled but never truly died out and the competing two brothers' actions threatened the lives of their siblings, so they chose to seal them away until a victor between them could be decided.

Arishia was forcefully sealed into a ring and spent an eternity trapped inside, she became nothing more than a possession to unsuspecting humans and as the ring started to degrade her soul started to seep out, bit by bit.

As Arishia's life flashed through Drake's mind he felt her emotions wash over him.

The suffocation of her time under the servitude of the dragons and her burning hatred towards them.

The love for her kin that was born from their shared struggles and the sweet memories she had forged during the age of fire.

The feeling of betrayal she had when she was sealed away, along with the loneliness that came from being trapped in that ring by herself for millennia.

Arishia too received Drake's memories, his tough early childhood, the familial warmth from his foster parents, his growth from boy to man and from man to soldier, the pain from the loss of his family, his feeling lost after their deaths and all the events that led him to this world and this very moment.