Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Chapter 27: Queen Rennala & Sorcerer Sellen

A/N: Sellen gets her Happy Ending. Even if it has to be forced down her throat.

-x-X-x-

When the Graven Witch comes, Rennala feels fear. Not for herself, but for her sweetings, one and all. This is not the same as having one of the Academy's scholars brave the Grand Library and risk life and limb for a particular tome. No, the Queen of the Full Moon knows quite well what sort Sorcerer Sellen is. She was the one who had her exiled, after all.

And so Rennala sends her sweetings away, to keep them out of the greedy Graven Witch's grubby little hands. She will not let the woman turn them towards a terrible end. She will not let her daughters be twisted and used for Sorcerer Sellen's mad ends. In truth, from the moment she lays eyes upon Sellen, Rennala knows neither she nor her sweetings have to fight. This... this is a problem that will take care of itself.

The Graven Witch has erred, either in who she's trusted or in her own work. Rennala of the Full Moon knows naught which it is, but for someone like her, for the Last Queen of Caria, seeing the catastrophe waiting underneath Sellen's skin is as easy as child's play. Indeed, the Graven Witch is a bomb waiting to explode. All Rennala has to do is wait, and the situation will resolve itself.

Enduring Sellen's gloating, when she initially takes up residence in the Grand Library is... a tasking chore, to be sure, but nothing Rennala has not endured before. Indeed, if she didn't know any better, she'd say the Graven Witch was almost disappointed that the Queen of the Full Moon didn't put up more of a fight.

Hmph. What would be the point in fighting a dying woman?

Alas, no one had bothered to tell Witch-Hunter Jerren any of that. The old man's arrival had startled Rennala... it was in that moment that she'd known, beyond a shadow of a doubt... her son had fallen. She'd felt it, of course. The stars in motion once more. For the Last Queen of Caria, it would be impossible not to notice the sudden unshackling of the cosmos, the increase in the power of sorcery.

But Rennala had tried not to let herself imagine what it could truly mean until she laid eyes on Jerren. He was... an old acquaintance of the Carian Royal Family. Specifically, he was a guest commander of her son, her darling boy, her Radahn. They'd sworn an oath of honorable death to one another. For Jerren to be at the Academy once more... there was only one thing that could mean. Radahn hadn't simply grown weak or mad enough to stop holding back the stars. He'd finally been laid to rest, his long agonizing journey finally at an end.

In the wake of that realization, Rennala had been filled with both grief and gratitude. No mother should ever outlive her children... and somehow, she could feel that she'd outlived all three. But at the same time, she knew Radahn had been suffering. She was not completely blind to the world, after all. It was... good, that his suffering was at an end.

Alas, poor Jerren had bitten off more than he could chew. Not because he'd made the Graven Witch his foe... but because the Graven Witch had made an ally of Rennala's one-time lover. The Tarnished, that indescribable, perfect man, had returned to Raya Lucaria. To Rennala's surprise, he'd done so to side with the Graven Witch against the Carian Royal Family's old friend.

Twas not Rennala's place to step in. And so, she did not. Witch Hunter Jerren died without knowing that his goal, his desire to see Sellen's plans laid to rest, would have been achieved without him lifting a finger. He died, unaware that it had all been pointless, in the end. But... he also died an honorable death, at the hands of a powerful warrior. She imagined it was what her son would have wanted for him.

What followed was an interesting conversation between the Graven Witch and the Tarnished. Rennala had watched on, silent and out of the way. Twas not like she had anything better to do. She had watched... and from the sidelines, had come to realize that even the Tarnished knew that Sorcerer Sellen's time was limited. Indeed, Rennala could see it in every line of the Tarnished's face, even if the Graven Witch remained blind to the very end, till the exact moment when the transformation struck.