The Shadowed Ring Part 2 [Elden Ring/SI]
The Academy of Raya Lucaria stood overlooking massive lakes. The tall and massive bridge that led to the academy's entrance was a thing of beauty, as was the bustling city filled with life that surrounded the main entrance. I trudged as just one other traveler upon his horse, indistinct in my normality and forgotten from their memories as soon as my sight eluded them.
I reached unchallenged for the main gates, where soldiers of Carian called for me to halt. One amidst them stood taller and prouder, wearing a spiked helm and the colors of the royal family. This was a Carian Knight, sworn to defend the royal family that was royal in name alone; for they surrounded themselves with the rapacious and the greedy, and all too soon would their rise to grace be met with their thundering fall.
Truly, the cruelty of greed; to not care about the choking last words of the innocents as they drown in their own blood.
"What reason brings you to the academy?" the knight spoke. "Present yourself! Bring forth the writ of passage!"
"I am expected," I said. From my belt a dagger emerged with the filigree of grass blades; the symbol of the royalty of the Erdtree. "Tell your mistress that the Shade of the Erdtree has come to grace your humble academy with his presence. Though, if I am unwanted, I shall take my leave."
The Knight paused, my words carried with them knowledge and power. It was easy to think that lies could be spoken to gain access, but the Gods and the Demigods were easy to discern even at a glance, and those who were blessed with grace could not so easily deny its presence, or the strength that it harbored.
And yet, the Shade of the Erdtree was notorious for hiding himself unless he deemed it worthwhile. The rumors, last I had checked them, spoke of darkened hair that could turn golden at a moment, of eyes the color of his mother, but which could darken with his mood. Of fair skin that could dirty itself on command to be soot-covered or grime-filled. Of the stench of putrid mud emitted the first second, only to be replaced by perfumed aromas the next.
I could be anyone. I could be anything. But I could only mention myself.
Few had tried. Few had seen the reason to lie about whom they were to gain access to places they were not meant to be in. The madness that had clung to them, the despair and the inevitable soul-crushing instant before their lives ended had brought many around to the claim that to invoke me was to summon me, and I did not like being invoked.
I did not like being called. I did not like hearing my name spoken. I did not, and I would not tolerate fools who sought strength from others, rather than from themselves.
A single failure would teach someone more than a mere instruction; to apply knowledge to a mind unburdened by suffering was to condemn it to a lifetime of arrogance.
"Your visit was not announced to us, your grace, please forgive us," the Carian Knight left in a hurry, as if death itself ran and nipped at his heels. I stood there on my horse, and straightened my back and my posture. The horse beat its hooves impatiently on the cobblestone, but yet I waited.
Murmurs rose from the crowd that had meanwhile gathered to watch the strange exchange at the gate. Was I a messenger with an important message? Was I a honored guest from far away? Was I a small, insignificant noble that was attempting to reach beyond my station? Their whispers ceased as a small figure hurried back on a nimble and lithe steed, flaming red hair on his head, and a gentle, noble-looking face.
He was a teenager who had barely seen the passage of fifteen cycles, was he not? But time meant nothing to this place where Order ruled. He looked like a teenager ready to become a man, but not yet. His eyes weren't clouded by reality, his arms had not been toughened by expectations achieved, or violence returned.
"Apologies if I'm the one welcoming you to the academy, but on such short notice-" he babbled, but I simply looked at him, an eyebrow raised until he was done explaining that he was the closest, by virtue of being in the stables caring for his horse.
"It is a fine steed," I said. "Let us go, then? The pomp can be kept for another time."
"O-Of course, this way," Radahn hastily turned his horse around, and with a slow trot we trudged forth. By the time we reached the main entrance of the academy, which opened into a verdant and lush square filled with well-kept greenery and alchemical plants, a more sumptuous welcome met us both.
A blond-haired youth bearing a regal appearance and an aquiline nose stood as tall as he could be, though he was dwarfed in appearance by the pallid beauty of Rennala, and her fair porcelain-white skin and pure crimson lips. On the other side of the Queen and Mistress of the Academy, stood a smaller version of her with fair skin and lither still frame.
She looked an inch away from shattering into bits and pieces, but while her body looked as frail as frail could be, her eyes betrayed an indomitable will that perhaps eclipsed her mother's own.
These were Rykard and Ranni, siblings of Radahn and whom he joined soon after dismounting.
I, myself, dismounted and shrugged off the beloved darkness from my frame, my limbs and clothes growing and morphing to assume the guise that was both the nature of my birth, and yet the furthest away from my real self I could be.
Golden hair; golden eyes. Tall and proud. I towered over Rennala's headdress, which was tall by itself.
My horse was graciously taken by a nearby knight, and Rennala spoke with candid, queenly grace.
"I, the Queen of the Full Moon, welcome you, Shade of the Erdtree, as honored guest and friend of the royal family of Raya Lucaria," her voice reverberated with the serene placidity of the moon's gentle rays. "Forgive the absence of my husband, but he has been called away to the capital for important affairs," she added, worry marring her face ever so briefly.
"Worry not, grace-blessed mistress of the Academy and head of the Carian Royal Family," I answered with a smile, "I have met with him many times in the capital, and I can assure you, always does his mind return to you." Though not for long, I reckoned. Eventually, there wouldn't be a mind left but just a shattered doll broken into bits and pieces to clasp the Order of the world with one's broken, worthless hands.
"Ranni, my youngest, will show you around," Queen Rennala said, "I was warned you would arrive when you were least expected, and thus I have yet to find for you suitable tutors in our sorceries."
"Do not worry for me, moon-graced majesty," I said. "I always find my way to knowledge. The harder it is to obtain, the more delighted I am to discover it."
The few platitudes exchanged, I brought my full attention to the figure of Ranni, wearing a customary robe of the academy if dyed of a dazzling white with cerulean hues. On her head, rather than the headdress similar to her mothers, was a large, nearly comical hat of sorts that would be more at ease on the head of a witch of the wilderness, and instead there it stood, propped as neatly and nobly as possible on such a small frame.
"Follow me," she spoke with a chill to her voice, and then turned to give me her back, walking into the main entrance as the escort of Carian knights soon dispersed each to follow their own charges, with but two remaining by the diminutive princess' side.
I basked in the carpet-covered hallways suffused with gleaming magical replicas of tiny stars, and on the passage of unmasked scholars who bowed and hastened their steps to avoid our passage out of awe, respect or, as some eyes gleamed with rancor and spite, envy.
My body shriveled upon itself with each step we took, and soon my golden self was gone, replaced with the somber darkness that enshrouded me.
"A variation of a night sorcery of Sellia, is that not?" Ranni asked, noticing my diminished frame. "Who taught you?"
"I walked amidst the scholars of Sellia as one of their peers, and broke bread with those they regarded as disreputable. From each of them, I learned," I replied.
"They would not teach one such as you their sorceries," Ranni replied. "Assassins seldom teach freely strangers at their tables." The Carian Knights that accompanied her stiffened, but I laughed at such a stern rebuttal.
"Ah, little one, you are smart enough to believe something is wrong in my words, but know that a sharp wit shall avail you naught if you lack the cunning to know when to use it," I answered. "The Sellian knew not whom I was."
"Then, you learned not from them how to hide your true self," Ranni retorted, not batting an eyelid.
"That I did not," I said.
"Then, from whom did you learn such a thing?" Ranni insisted.
I could feel the unease in the two Royal guards escorting us through the hallways. They wondered if I had the patience of a Demigod, or if I would grow tired at such a petulant series of requests. They wondered if, perhaps, they'd need to interpose themselves should I attempt to strike their charge; they prayed it would not come to that.
"From a city basked in eternal night, where death and gloom merged once they betrayed the Greater Will," I said in a soft whisper. "But worry not, small one. If I were an assassin sent to avenge some perceived slight from the golden throne of my godly mother, I would not have announced myself at the bridge."
"You speak in lies, and deceits," Ranni said with a stiff upper lip, and her unyielding gaze did not waver once as I met it. "But I will ensure you bring no harm to my family."
I smiled at that. "Familial love is a powerful thing," I said. "Guard that feeling well; few remember it once they stand tall and mighty above all others." I glanced away, and then chuckled. We were now passing by the classrooms where aspirant sages peered over books and scrolls, each attempting to become a master of their craft and be rewarded with eternal imprisonment of their heads inside constricting stone helms.
"Are these the classrooms? How are the sorceries divided? By the genealogy of Azur, Lusat or Caria, am I correct?"
"Why do you ask questions, if you know the answers?" Ranni retorted. "But know that no one will have the time to chaperone you around; this academy prides itself on self-sufficiency and self-discovery. Seek your own knowledge, learn from the masters of the past and improve upon their research. There are classrooms, but no one is forced to attend them."
She took a small breath, "Further, the three main areas of study are the Karolos Conspectus, Olivinus Conspectus and Lazuli Conspectus, the latter being the pride of my mother's and mine's research. Perhaps you should start with that; see the toil and effort that went into mastering the art of the Moon's sorceries, equal to the stars themselves."
"And what of the darkness between stars?" I hummed. "Does that not warrant any research?"
Ranni bristled. "There is nothing there, or it would not be darkness."
"You'd be surprised by how the color black is seldom considered for what it truly is; the presence of all colors."
"A pigment of paint is not the same as the currents of energy of the very firmament and of the bodies that inhabit it! It is a false comparison!"
The two Carian Knights glanced at one another.
They said not a word.
I said not a word either.
The laughter, on the other hand, echoed through the halls were fools learned and taught, not realizing that when the wise points at the moon, the fool isn't the one who looks at the finger, but the one who runs far away from knowledge that will turn the attention of monsters beyond comprehension upon the sight of the worthless imbecile that deemed it worthwhile to point a finger.
For sometimes, knowledge was not meant to be taught or learned...
...it was meant to be destroyed.
Smashwords.
www.smashwords.com
Draft2Digital (multiple book libraries)
books2read.com
discord.gg
Twitter:
www.facebook.com
