Chapter 2 : The Lesson

Twilight eyed Knight Aston from across the rising flame of the bonfire, it’s light glancing off his shield and sword. Aston himself not looking at the mare, instead he looked at what looked like to her like a simple piece of cloth.

“What are your questions?” Aston asked, not looking away from the cloth.

“Souls? You use souls as a currency in this land?” Twilight asked, deeply confused about the concept.

“In this land, Lordran, yes. Souls are the source of our life and power, and that power can be forged into weapons or can be used to bolster one’s own power, but only undead like myself can make full use of them.” He pulled out a copper coin and tossed it to her. “In the Human realms a more... cultured form of currency exists.”

Twilight eyed him, “Undead like yourself? You’re undead... like those hollows?”

He nodded, “Yes, in a way. They used to be like me and you, but this... curse drove them mad.”

“Am I undead?” Twilight asked.

He looked her over for a time, “Maybe... You are not marred by the darksign, so I would say no, you’re not.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Then again, only death triggers it’s appearing on your form. So the only way to know if thou art undead is to kill you.” Aston said.

“Great...” Twilight lamented. “Wait, you come back after death?”

The Knight of Astora only nodded.

“So you’re immortal? You never ‘really’ die?” She asked astonished.

The Knight grumbled, “Yes.”

“What’s it like, being immortal?” She asked, forgetting herself.

The Knight clenched his fist, “Not something you would enjoy.” The Knight stood up and began walking out of the tower and across a small plank bridge. “Dying over and over, your humanity slowly slipping away until you finally go hollow.”

Twilight stopped and looked down, “Aston... I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I suppose there was no way you could have known lass.” He said to her as he looked around the area.

“What makes someone go hollow?” Twilight asked.

“The power of the bonfires resurrects an undead after death, but at a price. That price is the humanity all humans hold within themselves. The way that... payment affects each one of us is different, but the end result is the same. That is why many undead attempt to hoard as much humanity as they can, the more one has, the less damage is done when the bonfire takes it’s price.” Aston explained.

“What happens to you?” Twilight asked.

“It is... difficult to explain to another. The... connections, the fluidity, between my memories... degrade. I can remember events and locations, peoples’ names and faces, but when I attempt to connect a face to a name, or to name a place I’ve been too, I find myself unable to. I know my mother’s name and her face, but when I attempt to connect a face to a name, or vice versa, I’m never certain that the connection is the right one. Maybe I got the face right, but instead of my mothers name, I placed the name of a lover in it’s stead. It’s all very... infuriating. To think that all this... damage is the cost of only one revival, I shudder to think what will happen should I die once more.”

“Is there a way to stop the hollowing?” She asked.

“To stop it? I do not know if it can be stopped. I do know it can be helped. I find it’s better when I have a goal, an objective, to strive towards. It helps me focus my thoughts and mind, and I find that my memories are more clear.” Aston said.

“Why do the bonfires take your humanity?” Twilight asked.

“I do not fully understand the bonfires, only the Way of White knows. But I was told by a cleric that the bonfires are fueled by humanity.” Aston said.

“But earlier you said that humanity comes from humans, does that mean you sacrifice humans to the bonfires?” Twilight asked startled.

“No, the church is not capable of something so... evil. Humanity can be freely given to the bonfires to bolster their flames, though I know not how to go about doing so.” Aston said defensively.

“Where did the bonfires come from?” Twilight asked.

“The bonfires appeared across the realms after Lord Gwyn kindled the first flame after it started to fade.” Aston said, Twilight noting the near reverence in his voice.

“Who was Lord Gwyn? Was he a god?” Twilight asked.

“Gwyn was one of the three primeval lords, along with Nito and the Witch of Izalith. Long ago in the Age of Ancients, the world was unformed, cold... dark, ruled over by Everlasting Dragons. Then, fire was born, and within the flames were found the souls of Lords. Being born not from life, but the world itself, these souls held unimaginable power. Gwyn’s soul gave him dominion over the light, the Witch of Izalith held the power of life, and Nito held power of death. They waged a war against the dragons, and would have lost were it not for a scaleless dragon named Seath. He was spiteful towards the other dragons for being born without their scales of immortality, so Seath told the Lords of the Dragons weakness, lightning. So Gwyn forged mighty bolts to peel away their stone scales, the Witch of Izalith and her followers weaved great firestorms that burned their homes, the Archtress, to ash, and Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease on their unprotected bodies. Thus the Age of Ancients was no more, and thus began the Age of Fire.” Aston said.

“That’s... amazing.” Twilight said in awe, to which Aston nodded.

“Sadly, the flame began to fade and the darkness encroached upon our lands. After an ill fated attempt by the Witch of Izalith to copy the first flame, which only resulted in her being corrupted unto a twisted reflection of the chaos of the flame and the birth of the first demons, Gwyn traveled to the kiln of the first flame and sacrificed himself and his soul as fuel for the flame. In doing so he stopped the fading of the flame and rescued us all from the coming darkness and the beasts that called the darkness home.” Aston said, finishing his tale.

“Come, we've tarried long enough.” He said.

Twilight nodded and readjusted her new cloak.

They moved onto a narrow walkway that led into a building, a pair of undead inside simply waited for them. As Aston got about half way across a firebomb crashed to the ground just in front of him, the explosion of flame crashing over him like a wave of water, though thankfully he had raised his shield to block most of the fire.

“Move!” He roared as he sprinted into the building, jumping into and barreling over one of the undead that had blocked his path, the undead and Knight crashing into the ground; Aston’s sword skidding across the floor in the scuffle. The other undead moved to run Aston though with a sword, but the Knight blocked the strike with his shield from a kneeled position atop the other undead.

“Twilight, take care of it!” Aston said as he blocked another blow, his sword on the ground just out of reach.

Thinking fast Twilight used her magic to pull out one of the small throwing knives from her cloak and she tossed it at the undead, her magic propelling it at an inhuman speed. The knife impacted the undead in the side of the head and sunk in to the hilt with a wet heavy thunk. The hollow’s head jerking to the side and it’s body falling to the ground. Aston, now free of the undead’s attacks, used the top portion of his crest shield to smash the other hollow’s head in.

They both breathed heavily, and Aston moved to collect his sword that had landed near a closed wooden door. As he kneeled to pick it up the door flew open as a armored undead kicked it, the door slamming it Aston’s head as it swung on it’s hinges. The Knight sprawling to the ground. The Knight attempted to get up only for the undead to plunge it’s spear into his chest, the point glancing off his armor, the undead stabbed again, this time hitting the unarmored portion in between Aston’s chest and left shoulder. The Knight let out a howl of pain as the spear went all the through the Knight’s shoulder, the blood covered point getting lodged into the ground.

The Knight kicked the undead from a near prone position, the spear keeping Aston from laying all the way on his back like some macabre kickstand. The undead stumbled back, leaving the spear lodged in Aston’s shoulder. Twilight took the chance to blow the hollow into oblivion, after the hollow was dealt with she went to his side.

Aston bit back another scream of pain as Twilight helped him to a sitting position, “This needs to come out.” He said.

“How do we get it out?” Twilight asked, “I’ve never done something like this before...”

“I have.” He said. “Make sure the other end does not move.”

Twilight took hold of the ‘spear end’, with her magic watching the blood on it bubble and boil away as her magic came into contact with it. She looked closer at the field of energy and saw what looked like small tendrils of magical energy tearing into the metal, but they left the wood untouched.

“Ready lass?” Aston asked, snapping Twilight out of her observation.

“Ya... ready. What are you going to-” The rest of Twilight’s question was cut of as Aston wrapped his arm around the spear’s handle and yanked it sharply down, snapping the wood so that only about an inch still poked through.

“Pull.” He said.

She did as Aston said and pulled on the spear, drawing it out with a sickening squelching sound and a spirit of blood, drawing a scream from Aston. The spear had not come out ‘clean’, she could see that it had taken ribbons of the Knight’s flesh with it as the jagged wood passed through.

Wordlessly Aston pulled out the flask and downed a number of large gulps, the wound closing. He got up and went to get his sword.

Twilight walked to his side, “Aston, are you ok?” She asked, worried.

He placed a hand on her, “I’m fine lass.” He walked towards the door “Not the first time I’ve been run through.”

“Oh...” Twilight said.

“Come on.” He said, moving up another set of steps.

When they reached the top, they found a group of three hollows, one with a battle axe, another with a sword and round shield, and behind the two of them was an undead with a pouch of firebombs.

“Twilight take care of the hollow in the back, I’ll handle the rest.” Aston said. Twilight did as she was told, opting to stay out of the fray, mostly to give Aston the room he needed, and charged up a spell. The undead reached into a pouch and pulled out a firebomb, but before it tossed the sphere Twilight’s magic connected. The spell hit the hollow square in the chest, it was not enough to kill the hollow, but the force made it drop the firebomb, the flames finishing it off. Aston making short work of the other two.

Aston walked a short distance to a door of a house the undead were standing in front of, he attempted to open the door but found it locked. He moved to a window and peered inside.

“Where do you think the key is Aston?” Twilight asked.

Aston answered by putting his straight sword away and punching out the window and climbing in the building. A moment later the door opened, “I’d say I’ve found it lass.” He said rolling his shoulders.

A small chuckle escaped her lips, “I’d say. You can be quite the brute, you do know that?”

Aston allowed himself a hearty laugh as he rummaged through a chest they had found on a small porch. He let out a noise of delight as he picked something out of the chest, “Gods, now what do we have here I wonder.”

Twilight moved to his side, seeing three pouches of a fine golden resin, “What is that?” She asked.

“Golden tree resin, smiths use it, along with an ember, to work lightning into a weapon. Normally it would be useless to us in this state, but the Knights of Astora found a trick. Watch.” Aston said.

Aston took a large glob of the golden resin and smeared it on his blade from the tip to where the blage met the hilt, then he took out a small flint stone from his pouch and struck the blade making a spark. What happened next astonished Twilight, the spark began to jump along the blade getting progressively bigger and bigger with more jumping around until the blade was covered in what looked like lightning.

“Come, the resin shant last long like this.” Aston said as they made their way up to some kind of watchtower.

They traveled up the tower until they could not go up any farther, having to walk across the battlements along the top of one of the cities many walls. Twilight jerked as she felt something slam into her back, she jumped to the side and looked around. On the ground not too far away was a crossbow bolt that would be lodged in her right now if it were not for the metal plates woven into the cloak, Twilight in a small fit of rage at the attempt on her life found the culprits to be a pair of undead on top of the watch tower they had come out of. She pulled out a pair of knives and tossed them at the undead, killing them.

“I’ll go look for more. Stay here will you lass?” Aston said.

Twilight nodded as Aston walked back the way they had come, climbing up a ladder that they had missed when they came onto the battlements to look for more undead.

Twilight allowed herself to look over the edge of the wall, surprised to find that the city appeared to be on top of a mountain, the city taking a terraced form like some farms from her homelands with massive wall separating each level.

Twilight suddenly heard and felt a deep growl reverberate through the air, the sound of cracking stone coming not far behind it. She looked around the wall, her eyes slowly scanning around before she found what was making all the noise.

Atop the tower opposite from Aston’s was what looked like a giant minotaur, a massive axe held in it’s hands. It let out another deep growl then it jumped off the tower onto the wall, it’s great axe smashing the ground in front of it.