The Fallen Leaves Fall Yet Again..

The First Step

"You are absolutely the greatest fool in all the lands between." 

The Tarnished was placed on his knees in a begging position while Marika stood above him with her hammer in hand, and a hand on her hip. 

He raised a finger to offer a rebuttal, but her hammer glowed and he suddenly lost all the will to speak. 

Melina kneeled next to him a hand on his shoulder in a consoling manner, but she too had already given the man his fair share of bruises alongside her mother. 

"I must agree with my mother, Tarnished. The way you have gone about achieving your perfect end, is... to put it simply, crude." The Tarnished looked to her in confusion. 

What had he been doing that was crude? He couldn't say he hadn't heard it before from Tiche once or twice, on how he hadn't been very persistent when it came to certain things, and how he would end up repeating certain useless tasks, but for the life of him whenever it came to preventing something he would always freeze up. Like an outer god had gripped upon his very soul, and prevented him from trying to change fate. 

Yet he had thought he had done a rather good job in his last few runs of it all even with this restriction. 

Especially in the run before his last, It was quite literally the best he had ever done!.

He had saved Sellen by simply withholding information, Ranni lived although he didn't summon her causing her to hate him after he saved Marika, Melina was saved after he used the Frenzied Flame and cured it later, Fia was never killed after the brothers were slain and he didn't bring her the Cursemark of Death, Rya was okay wherever she had gone. 

Blaidd and Iji were stagnant alive due to him not pursuing Ranni's ending, Boc was happy, Alexander lived, Diallos lived, Patches survived, Nepheli was lord, Kenneth was with Nepheli, Tanith was unbothered with Rykard, Latenna was with him, Millicent lived and he didn't chase her to the haligtree, and he had saved everyone else he could on their way to their fates! 

What else could he have done? He did the best he could!

"What else could I have done?" Both Marika and Melina looked at him, and he looked back at them in frustration. 

"I know there were better ways to save everyone, but I cannot tell you what it was that every time i would get so close to completing my quest, I always felt like something was stopping me. Like an outer god would slip its way into my soul, and stop me."

Marika's eyes glowed, she leaned down and grasped her Tarnisheds face with both hands, while looking deeply into his eyes. 

"I can not sense the presence of any interference from foreign outer gods, are you certain this wasn't just you?" 

The Tarnished looked at her seriously.

"Do you think I wouldn't have done it by now if that was the case?" 

Marika shook her head, and walked a bit away from the pair to think. 

Melina took this chance to speak to the Tarnished alone. 

"I suppose it would only be right if I gave this to you now." She took off the ring used to summon Torrent, and handed it to him. She had a small smile on her face, recalling the memories the Tarnished told her he had with her.

"Thank you, I'll make sure he gets to stretch his legs from time to time." He stood up and stretched, patting himself down before looking towards the entrance to the cave of knowledge. Melina noticed this and asked about it.

"Is there something you need down there, my lord?" The Tarnished shook his head, and put his helmet back on. 

"No, but there is a soldier down there. One that I can only ever deserve to beat, after I finish this journey." He dramatically threw his cape back on, and went towards the door that led to the surface.