Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Chapter 26: Sorcerer Sellen

A/N: Been a while since we checked in on Sellen, hasn't it? I'm sure she's doing juuust fine.

-x-X-x-

She's known for quite a while that her days were numbered. Even with her true body imprisoned, Sellen had always believed it was only a matter of time before she was hunted down by those who would rather see her fully dead. Making plans to try and counteract that likely fate were made all the harder by her oh so limited reach.

And then the Tarnished had shown up. He was not like most of his kind, she'd learned that quite rapidly. He'd wanted nothing more than to learn at her feet, and took to her lessons as only a prodigy could. To say Sellen was impressed with him would be an understatement and a half. Indeed, when she'd started hearing rumors of his major accomplishments, she'd begun to realize just how lucky she was.

Slaying the Lord of Limgrave and claiming the weakest of the Demigod's Great Runes was one thing. But then he'd gone on to accomplish even greater and acquire more shards of the Elden Ring than anyone had in quite a long time. And throughout it all, throughout his journey in the Lands Between, he hadn't forgotten little ole her. He hadn't abandoned his Teacher in all things Sorcery.

It started with him tracking down Azur. The Primeval Sorcerer Azur, to be exact. Once a grand master at the Academy of Raya Lucaria, he had been exiled, just like Sellen herself. Master Azur was a founding glintstone sorcerer at the Academy, as well as Sellen's first teacher. He was also a stern judge of character, so to see a student of hers wielding his trademark sorcery, Comet Azur... it was something else.

For the first time in a long time, Sellen had felt pride well up in her chest. The Tarnished, for all that she had initially taken him for a bluntstone, was no waste of her time at all. And if Master Azur had thought him capable enough to share the Comet Azur sorcery with him... well, Sellen had decided she could entrust her secrets to the Tarnished as well.

And so, she had told him the truth. She had explained why exactly she was banished from Raya Lucaria in the first place.

"It was for attempting to restore the primeval current of glintstone sorcery, of course. You see, my student, I want glintstone sorceries that open our minds, unbound by terrestrial taboos. Not the toothless pedantry peddled by the Carian Royal Family. I want to reach beyond our limits, no matter what it costs us in return."

She'd paused then, to gauge his reaction, but he had had the same interest as always writ across her face, and so she'd continued on... carefully.

"My apprentice. I presume nothing. Teacher and student are not bound to tread the same path. But hear me out, if you would. I need your assistance in restoring the primeval current of glintstone sorcery. Mayhap this could be a journey we undertake together?"

It was putting a lot of trust in the Tarnished, Sellen had known that at the time. She'd even held somethings back in the hopes that not all would be lost if her student balked in the face of what she was asking. But in the end... well, he'd smiled and nodded, giving her his agreement in that silent way of his. Sellen had been thrilled. Overjoyed, one might say. So happy, in fact, that she'd made a rather silly joke about how he must have had a fabulous teacher. A joke that she'd ultimately been embarrassed by when she revisited the conversation in her head later.

Still, she hadn't told him all of her secrets, even then. First... first she'd had one more test for him.

A test he'd passed with flying colors, as if there could be any other outcome. The task she'd given him, to find Master Lusat in the same way he'd found Master Azur, had proven far from beyond her Tarnished student. Indeed, he'd succeeded in no time flat, returning to her with the Stars of Ruin Sorcery that the old master was so famed for.