Melina

A/N: Yoooo, its the big five-o! Hype! If only I had fifty more chapters in me, but nah, everything has to end sometime. Five more chapters for the main story, and then 14 bonus chapters. So at least there's that to look forward to!

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Lord Godfrey's presence outside of the Erdtree had shaken Melina's faith in her creator, there was no denying that. Finding him at the end of her and her Tarnished's journey… didn't it mean that Queen Marika never thought Melina's chosen champion would make it this far? Didn't it mean the closest thing she had to a mother only believed her pick for Elden Lord would make it to the Forge, and no further?

It smacked of betrayal, and certainly Melina had entered the heart of the Erdtree alongside her Tarnished intent on having words with her mother. But… never in a million years had she expected, nor wanted this. To bear witness to Queen Marika's crumbling form, hung aloft by the last arc of the shattered Elden Ring, was to bear witness to a tragedy.

Melina… Melina did not remember much of her birthing. Her memories were much clearer after she was out of the Erdtree, out in the world, seeking the Tarnished that her mother had intended for her to find. Indeed, she knew her purpose was to burn and make sure the Erdtree's brambles burned with her, but at the same time… at the same time, she had not known the state Marika would be in when the deed was finally done.

Her body turned to stone, there are large swathes of her form that have simply… fallen away from her. In fact, her left arm is in ruins, for all that it is still somehow suspended above her head alongside her right. By all logic, by all knowledge, it shouldn't even be capable of holding her aloft anymore.

But then, Queen Marika was a God. Her physical form… twas meaningless, wasn't it? Except, there was a spear of crimson red through her side that said otherwise. And a gaping hole in her torso that showed not the innards of a living being, but the faded glow of golden runes of power, slowly but surely ebbing away over the time she'd been here.

Her flowing blonde hair is one of the only aspects of Queen Marika that still stands untouched. With her head hanging down, the God does not move as they approach, as Melina stares at her aghast. But… that does not mean there is no reaction to their presence.

The kindling maiden does not think it altogether likely that they just so happened to arrive at the exact moment that Queen Marika's bondage would shatter. The shard of the Elden Ring that she's crucified and hung upon cracks, and breaks, and she begins to fall. Melina's singular open eye goes wide, and her mouth opens, but before the exclamation of sorrow can escape it, her Tarnished is there to catch the falling stone body.

Her Tarnished. Her Chosen Champion. Melina had been so focused on Queen Marika, so focused on what had been done to her mother, that she hadn't even paid him the slightest mind. She does so now and realizes that he is decidedly unfazed. He's as utterly unsurprised as he's ever been in the entire time that she's known him. Even this, he had foreknowledge of? Just who was her Tarnished? Who was this man?

As he holds Marika's crumbling form in his arms, Melina is forced to put her questioning thoughts aside upon the realization that something is happening to the Eternal Queen. Her beautiful golden blonde hair is beginning to turn red, and her ruined body… is beginning to present a more masculine form. She's undergoing a transformation that Melina, for all her knowledge, does not properly understand. This is not information she needed to complete her task, and so she was not privy to it.

However, before the transformation can finish, or even get truly under way, Melina's Tarnished takes out the first Rune Arc and… and for lack of a better word, feeds it to Marika. The golden glow within the ruins of the crumbling Queen's side flashes for a moment, brightening up. Melina's breath catches. Is he… is her Tarnished about to do something impossible, again?

But then, does she even have to ask. Of course he is. One Rune Arc becomes two. Two Rune Arcs become ten. Ten Rune Arcs become a hundred. This is not like when he forced those Preserving Boluses down the red-haired swordswoman Millicent's throat, however. For one, there is no swallowing to be had. He pushes the Rune Arcs into Marika's stone flesh, and her crumbling form absorbs them like fertile earth absorbing desperately needed water.

For two, he never pauses, nor hesitates. There is no stopping him, and no slowing down, not even for a moment. He works like a man possessed, and before Melina knows it, she's watched him feed Queen Marika nine hundred and ninety-nine Rune Arcs. Where he'd even FOUND so many of the larger shards of the Elden Ring, Melina did not know. But… it wasn't enough.

Even as he abates for a beat, Melina looks upon her mother with a held-in breath. The transformation that Marika had begun to undergo has been halted. The red strands in her hair have not multiplied any further. She is still a woman, still of golden locks. And her body… her body is somewhat repaired, in some ways.

But at the same time, she is still of stone, and more of her is crumbling then not. Her eyes remain closed, and it is apparent that she is far from fixed. For a brief moment, Melina wonders if perhaps… perhaps she has watched her Tarnished finally reach his limit. Is this how far he can go? He is only mortal after all.

For all that his potential is fully realized, she cannot expect him to be able to save a God, can she? And yet… she had; Melina realizes. He'd given her hope that he had a plan and that that plan extended to even now, far past that moment beyond time where he'd saved himself from the Frenzied Flame.

He had clearly done his best though. She would not-

The Tarnished pulls out a Lord's Rune, feeds it to Queen Marika's stone form, and begins the process anew. One Lord's Rune rapidly becomes a hundred, and then a hundred more, and… Melina's mouth is open now, her jaw dropped, and she's not sure she will ever close it again. The Grace that dwelled within the inhabitants of the Lands Between, that lingering residue of gold… it had ALWAYS been the domain of Queen Marika the Eternal.

It was by her Will that Grace was distributed. By her Will that Grace was taken away. The Lord's Runes were said to be the runes of those who were destined to become a Lord, only for the Elden Ring to be shattered, leaving behind naught more than a distant duty. Only a handful of individuals could lay claim to such a right, only a handful of people could possibly have said to be on such a path.

So then where the FUCK had her Tarnished found nine hundred and ninety-nine Lord's Runes? The impossibility of it all almost makes Melina miss when he finishes with those and quickly moves onto the same amount of Hero's Runes.

It was said that there were once heroes who walked the battlefields of the Shattering War, abundantly blessed by the Erdtree itself… and who upon earning their honor, simply died, having fulfilled their purpose. THAT was where Hero's Runes were said to come from. Certainly, said heroes were far more numerous than those candidates for the position of Lord. But even still, could there really have been hundreds of them, even across all the time that had passed between the Shattering and now?

Did it really matter if there was or not? At this point, Melina supposed she really shouldn't even be surprised. If he somehow got his hands on nine hundred and ninety-nine Rune Arcs, and nine hundred and ninety-nine Lord's Runes, then of course he would manage to get his hands on nine hundred and ninety-nine Hero's Runes.

That said, when he finishes with the Hero's Runes and moves onto the Numen's Runes next, Melina is just about ready to throw her hands up in the air in disbelief. Truly! She'd had some inclinations that her Tarnished was a bit of a hoarder, and that he had some sort of unique power for carrying his collection around with him, in some way keeping it away from prying eyes. The way he changed outfits and armors and weapons and spells on a dime, the way he altered his entire aesthetic without hesitation for every possible situation at hand… she'd have been a fool not to notice.

But this was getting ridiculous. Still… at the same time, it was working. Melina couldn't say for certain whether it was the type of Rune, or simply the over-abundance… or both. Marika was of Numen stock, after all. She knew that much, as it was effectively common knowledge. Was that perhaps why, when Melina's Tarnished lover made it to the Numen's Runes and began feeding those to her mother as well, that the true recovery started to take place?

The whole time, Marika had been… healing, of a sort. Her crumbling, petrified body had slowly but surely rebuilt itself. It started with the golden lattice of grace inside of her core, visible through the massive ruined hole in the side of her torso. Glowing more and more intensely with power, there came a point where that lattice pulsed through her body… and some fragments of her crumbling form reconstituted themselves.

Around the time that the Tarnished breaks out the Numen's Runes, its as if they've hit some sort of breakthrough. Marika's healing increases in pace, like she's cleared some hurdle. The last strands of red in her hair disappear, as do the barest hints of masculine form that had begun to overtake her body, before the Tarnished had started his silent bid at saving her.

She's far from hale and hearty, but at the same time, her circumstances are improving rapidly, by the moment. Melina can only watch in real time as Queen Marika's voluptuous figure reconstitutes itself, piece by piece, soaking up the Numen's Runes greedily, until all nine hundred and ninety-nine of them have sunk into her stone flesh.

Not stone for much longer, either. After the Numen's Runes come the Golden Runes. The most basic of runes to be found in the Lands Between, Melina's chosen champion nevertheless pushed them upon Marika as well, using them to effectively clean up the blonde Queen's cosmetic maladies… such, as her petrification. Around halfway through the Golden Runes, Marika's flesh begins to actually look like flesh again. The holes in her august form have closed up, no longer is she a crumbling ruin of a woman.

Indeed, the Eternal Queen is looking much livelier, as the Tarnished continues his work. Even when it looks like he's done, he doesn't let up. Even when it seems like she's healed, he doesn't stop. Nine hundred and ninety-nine Golden Runes, Melina notes. He goes all the way to the end, and only on the very last rune… does Queen Marika's ample bosom rise, her chest lifting and then falling.

On the very last rune, the Eternal Sovereign of the Lands Between takes her first breath in a very, VERY long time. Her eyes begin to flutter open, and her lips begin to part as her pale face colors at finding herself in the arms of a man upon her 'awakening'.

Melina can scarcely believe what she's seeing, to be honest. She hadn't thought it possible. Queen Marika lived. Melina had hoped as much, of course. Back before she'd had to come to terms with her own extended survival, the kindling maiden had fantasized about where her chosen champion would go after she was gone.

After she burnt herself up in order to light the Erdtree aflame and destroy the brambles blocking the way to its heart, of course she had hoped that he would reach said heart and reconnect with her mother. You could not be Elden Lord, without being Queen Marika's consort, after all. Twas a fitting reward for her Tarnished, Melina had thought at the time. Her purpose would be fulfilled, her time would be done, and he… he would go on to take his place at the side of a more fitting woman.

Of course, his interactions with Lunar Princess Ranni had put that somewhat in doubt. When the Lunar Princess had called Melina's Tarnished her Consort, Melina had had her concerns. She'd had her concerns an awful lot of times, across the myriad of women her lecher of a Tarnished had taken into his confidence, saving from certain fates, helping in numerous ways. Every woman, no matter their strength, was a damsel in distress in his eyes. They all had to be saved, sometimes even from themselves.

But now… now it was just her, her Tarnished, and Queen Marika. All was well. In fact, the Lunar Princess was nowhere in sight! Let's see her try to claim Melina's champion as her Consort now! Especially when he was about to be made Elden Lord by Queen Marika the Eternal herself! Hah!

Except, just as Queen Marika is looking up at him, confused but intrigued… Melina's Tarnished carefully sets the Queen down and rises to his feet. As he walks away from her, Melina and Marika both watch him go with absolutely baffled looks on their faces. Then, the Tarnished bends down and… wait, where had that pulsing, glowing, glintstone-blue Summoning Sign come from? Had that always been there?!

No… no, Tarnished, what are you doing?!

The Tarnished presses his hand into the Summoning Sign, heedless of Melina's distress, before she can even counsel him to think better of it. And in doing so, he summons Lunar Princess Ranni to the heart of the Erdtree on the spot.

She appears in a flash, her four arms folded in front of herself, her wide-brimmed witch's hat lowered to the point that only the soft curve of her smiling lips can be seen. She takes a step forward and opens her mouth to speak… only to stop in her tracks and lift her head entirely.

In that moment, it becomes immediately obvious that the Lunar Princess had NOT been able to peer into the heart of the Erdtree before now and witness what had been happening in here. Because the way she stares in wide-eyed stupefaction at the healed Queen Marika makes it abundantly clear this was not what she expected to see.

Slowly, her one open eye moves to Melina… and then to the Tarnished. And she speaks the words that Melina herself wishes to say in that moment.

"Dear Consort… what hast thou done?"

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A/N: Once again, I come before you humbly with hat in hand to ask that you forgive me taking increasing liberties with both plot and mechanics. Maybe there's some better, more complex way by which the Tarnished could have saved Marika. But nah, I just had him feed her a metric shit-ton of runes and call it a day.

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated/encouraged! Let me know what you think!

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