Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Bonus Chapter #4: Lunar Princess Ranni

A/N: Ranni is still a mite peeved. Luckily, Melina is kind of a slut for this kind of kink play. All's well that end's well.

-x-X-x-

"Mmph!"

"Silence, mine fragment. Dost thou think I do not know thy part in mine woes? If not for thee, would mine Consort have been so adamant, I wonder?"

"Nnngh..."

Ranni scoffs, as Melina shakes her head in denial. With the gag in her mouth, she cannot actually voice her disagreement. One of Ranni's four hands comes up and grabs a fistful of Melina's strawberry blonde locks, yanking the kindling maiden's head back and keeping her from continuing to give her denials in that form as well.

"Hush, I said. I will not brook thy defiance. Not here, not now... nor ever."

A quiver runs through Melina, followed by a shudder before ultimately, her shoulders slump in resignation. Good. Submission is the least Ranni deserves, after all that she's been put through.

She's still... irritated over how thoroughly her dear consort had outplayed her. He's lucky she fell so deeply in love with him, because otherwise, she would not have brooked HIS defiance either. As it is, the mortal man who has become the Elden Lord, who even now is referred to as the Tarnished Lord by more and more of the Lands Between, had fully bamboozled her.

Her plans for her order had been all but dashed upon the rocks. Certainly, she still had her power. Her achievement, slaying her Two Fingers and ascending to Goddess all on her own strength, was not necessarily diminished in any real way. But her intentions, of leaving this world behind with only her Consort at her side... were no longer feasible.

The worst part was, he and Marika were right. And oh, how Ranni hated having to acknowledge the latter was right about anything. Tch, even learning the full story of Radagon's betrayal and the gilded cage the Eternal Sovereign found herself in did not necessarily diminish Ranni's dislike of the other woman. Certainly, Ranni's father's choices were his own, and even if she wanted to say otherwise, she could only lay his betrayal of her mother at the feet of the Elden Beast, that vassal to the Greater Will, and not any other.

But even still... that didn't mean she had to forgive or forget! Marika had still done much to damage Ranni's family! She and her Golden Order had turned Radahn against them, using her brother, who had always had more power than sense, to hold back the stars. In doing so, he had irrevocably hampered and damaged their family's power as well as glintstone sorceries for far too long!

Luckily, the Golden Order was no longer the supreme power in this land. If Ranni had to pay homage to Marika of all people, if her dear consort's ultimate plan was just a return to the old status quo... nay, even her great love for the mortal man who had so effectively captured her heart would not stay her hand then. She would have been forced to act. To do what, she could not say. Luckily, it had not come to that.

Nay, instead the new Elden Lord had done what no other Lord before him could say. He had stood on his own two feet, rather than kneeling before any God or Goddess. Ranni persisted in calling him Consort even now, but the truth was, he was Ruler and Lord in his own right. Twas half the reason that she had ultimately agreed to the joint marriage between the lot of them at the Church of Vows.

That, and the fact that her mother thought it a good idea. As well as the sneaking of the mortal women who had her Consort's attention, and had stolen him away to get married by the Pastor of Vows first. Bah! So many scheming women in her dear consort's life. Twas not fair... but then, life very rarely was.

There were plenty of things for Ranni to be unhappy about, she supposed, even now. And yet... there were glad tidings to be sure as well. The absence of the Greater Will, and indeed the presence of any Outer Gods upon the Lands Between, gave Ranni deep and unending satisfaction. There would be no more messages from the Two Fingers. The remaining Finger Readers were in quite the tizzy, their connection to the Greater Will severed and their ability to read hands cut off.