Elden Ring: Putrefaction of Gold

Behind the Mirrors

"I warned you not to manipulate me," said Radagon.

He paced back and forth in front of the backdrop of the polished tin and copper alloy as it formed the perfect image of Marika. He kept his stone hammer to his side, but in his hand at the ready.

In the Place of Mirrors, which existed somewhere in the matrics deep within the Erdtree, they could see each other. It was a place familiar to the twins, yet they had no "memories" of it. It existed in a plane beyond that was past the illusion of bark, roots, and leaves in an uncountable infinity. A place where they were once "one" prima matter in a time before they "existed" in the Lands-Between, where they became two and underwent the dissolution in the Greater Will's magnum opus.

It moved its fingers about the Lands-Between. It held the sun in its right hand and the moon in its left in the eternal circulation of the work. It spun threads of life and death within the tree. Purifying the essence of life over and over again until it created the perfect matter.

The mother gave birth to the son and the son was also his father. The Winged Lioness conjoins with her mate, the Red Lion, and from their union comes the little cub. The virgin Luner Princess carries within her the secrets of the opus.

These were the visions given by the Two Fingers and the Greater Will. Grand visions of a grand purpose, but it all ended in failure. Marika sensed it. They were all failures. Even the Greater Will. For all these visions were nothing more than lies.

In a moment, Radagon became the reflection, looking back at Marika who now stood on the plain.

"It will not work, Radagon. It hasn't worked."

Mariak was again the reflection.

"It would work if you hadn't insisted on halting the progress."

"What else can I do? Outside the vassal, there can be no control of the outcome."

"Whose vassal was it?"

"I did what I needed to do to free us both, Radagon," said Marika.

"Did you do something to them so they'd be born early?"

"No."

A lie.

"Did you pollute them?"

"No"

Another lie.

"Did you try to kill them?"

Marika fell to her knees under the burden of her sin.

"Why should I want them that comes from violence brought upon me?" said Marika.

Radagon swung his hammer and shattered Marika's reflection.

He swung it down again and again, breaking the fragments into smaller pieces. He lifted it one last time to see her face, still reflected on the glass.

Radagon paused with his hand held high before he let it drop. Her tears became his tears.

"In the virgin mirror of wisdom, the divine will recognizes itself and 'imagines from the underground in itself... and impregnates itself with imagination from wisdom as a mother without childbirth... and each is recognized in his nature and strength: for without opposition, nothing is revealed. No image appears in the clear glass." - J. Bohme, Theosophical Works, Amsterdam, 1682 (Roob, 210).