Vereor Nox

Cinder 2: Rosette

Death is an... odd experience for an undead. When most ponies die, they're just dead, and that's the end of it. But when an undead dies, it's a bit more... involved.

At the very least, that's the way it felt when I woke up at the bonfire with my body almost completely intact. I rose to my hooves and instinctively stretched. I felt well rested... which was odd, as I remembered with great clarity that I had just died quite horribly. Looking down, I saw that I was indeed completely intact, aside from the fact that I now looked a little more like a zombie-pony than I was comfortable with. Looking up from my tattered frame, I noticed something else peculiar. It seemed as though almost no time had passed between when I had died and now.

Deciding to file away these new mysteries for later, I turned to face the now ajar double doors and climbed the steps until I stood before them. I could see that demon in there at the other end of the courtyard, looking all smug. At least, I think he looked smug. And I think it was a he. It's kind of hard to tell with demons. I pushed the doors farther apart, and then prepped myself. After a few seconds of stretching, I began galloping. I made a mad dash for the door on the left, weaving between pillars, dodging swings of the demon's club, and smashing through several precariously placed pots.

While it was probably only a few seconds, it felt like eons had passed before I reached the doorway. I quickly dove through it, and a gate slammed shut behind me, locking me out of the courtyard. It was just as well, as I didn't particularly feel like trying my hoof at demon slaying again any time soon. I trotted down the stairs before me, and soon came to a room inhabited by another apathetic hollow and, to my great relief, another bonfire.

Not only did I feel terribly drained from my tactical retreat, but if my previous experience with death was real, then I'd need to rest here to prevent myself from having to deal with tall dark and ugly again. And after spending a few minutes doing just that, I felt refreshed enough to move forward again. Seeing as the only other path open to me looked to lead into another hallway, I started walking.

I had barely walked two feet forward when I was hit square in the shoulder by an arrow. I quickly dove for cover in an alcove to my left, and then peeked around the corner. Squinting, I could just make out the figure of a hollow aiming at my position with a shortbow. I quickly pulled my head back in as an arrow whizzed right past it. As I sat there, mulling over what to do next, I took a glance at the alcove I had decided to dodge into. If the grey walls and the emptiness were anything to go by, I was in another cell. That explained why that archer hadn't come after me; I was pinned, and all he had to do was bide his time until I came out again.

As I took in the dullness of the cell, I noticed a subtle bit of contrast. This contrast came in the form of a corpse with several arrows sticking out of it. After a quick examination of the corpse, it was clear that I wasn't the first victim of the hollow archer outside.

The corpse was unidentifiable. A combination of hollowing and time had seen to that. Even the tattered remains it wore could barely be recognized as armor. The one thing that remained in usable condition was the leather shield it had carried. Ignoring the pain still flaring in my shoulder, I took the shield up in my magic, and resolved to take out the archer. I may not have been his first victim, but I could make sure I was the last.

With shield held aloft, I strode out into the hallway, and pressed onward even as the archer resumed his volley. As I neared his end of the hallway, I noticed something glinting in the shadows. Continuing my advance, I only stopped when the archer turned to retreat. As he did so, I took the sword up in my magic and launched it at his back. Satisfied with the squelch of the sword impaling its target and the accompanying thunk, I went to confirm my kill, giving a sidelong glance at the corner as I did so. There, nestled in the shadows, was the body of what must have been yet another of the archer's victims. As I took his scabbard and put it on, I hoped that he knew his sacrifice wasn't in vain, and gave a silent prayer to the Allmother that his soul had found peace.

As I rounded the corner, the adrenaline from being immersed in battle wore off, and the pain throbbing in my shoulder increased dramatically, reminding me that it had an arrow lodged in it. Doing my best to ignore it, I walked to the body of the archer, and was pleased to see that the villainous marksman lay limp on the stone floor. As I retrieved and sheathed my new sword, I momentarily saw what looked like a silver light flickering out of the corpse. As soon as it subsided, I began to feel more powerful somehow, almost as if I had drawn some sort of energy from taking the hollow's life.

Seeing as there was no way to solve this mystery, I just added it to the pile of things to look into once I escaped, and continued down the hall. At the end of it was another set of stairs.

I climbed the stairs, and came to a balcony overlooking the bonfire courtyard. There were two paths away from the balcony, one going left, and one going right. Naturally, I decided to take the left path, because everypony knows that you escape mazes by continuously going left.

Unfortunately, it was a dead end. There were stairs, but they were far too broken to climb. As I turned to leave the seemingly pointless left hallway, something caught my eye. There was something shining at the top of the broken stairs, next to what appeared to be a locked door. Looking closely, I could see it was another corpse. Though its features were hard to make out, I could see that it was a unicorn, and the glint was coming off its horn. Using my magic, I carefully removed the shining thing and brought it to me.

It was a ring, old and rusted, and there was something resembling a sigil carved into the rust. As I was certain that the dead unicorn must have been wearing it for a reason, I put it on, and I silently thanked the Allmother that I was a unicorn and not an earth pony. Really, how silly would it be if I had to go all the way around the prison to unlock a door just for a ring?

Leaving the dead end, I returned to the crossroads I had come to previously and went right. This brought me to another crossroads; two sets of stairs, with one on the left going up, and the other on the right going down. Seeing as left had worked before, I went up...

And was almost immediately launched backwards by the giant steel ball that rolled down the stairs. After being launched through the wall behind me along with the ball, I could barely move. On top of all the bones the ball had likely shattered into fine powder, it had pushed the arrow in my shoulder deeper in and broken the shaft. It was almost painful to breathe, and I probably wasn't moving anytime soon.

So it came as an immense relief when a figure clad in familiar armor entered my vision. She wasn't wearing her helmet, so it was easy to distinguish which of the knights she was. But as my vision grew foggier, it became hard to focus, so I couldn't make out any details about her face.

"Open your mouth," commanded the mare. Too addled by my wounds to argue, I complied, and was rewarded with a flask being pressed to my muzzle. I greedily gulped down the liquid that poured from the flask, and as I did so, I felt my insides rearranging themselves, all pushing themselves back into their proper places. It was a strange feeling, both sickening and comforting at the same time. Sickening because I could feel everything shifting back into place, and because I could feel anything that didn't belong in my body pushing itself out. Comforting because I felt as good as new when it was done. It reminded me heavily of the feeling I had after resting at a bonfire for a few minutes.

Soon I found that I was able to move unhindered, and took the opportunity to stand and get a better look at the mare who had saved me yet again. She had a white coat, and flowing pink mane that couldn't possibly all fit into her helmet. Her blue eyes were giving me a piercing glare, but it was an act. Even as I watched her, she was wiping at the remnants of tears with her hoof. Not wanting to sit in silence, I spoke first.

"So, that's twice you've saved me now. I'd like to return the favor somehow, but all I can give is my thanks." The mare nodded sullenly, and then we just sat in silence for a while. After several minutes of this, the mare responded.

"Well, what about your name?" She asked. "Surely you can tell me whom it is that I've saved?"

"I can, just so long as you don't call me Shirley." That got a faint chuckle out of her. Satisfied to have brightened her mood a bit, I continued, "I'm Fleeting Ember of the Hayseed Swamps. A pleasure to meet you. Now, if you'd be so kind as to return the favor?"

"Fair enough," Responded the mare. "It's not as if there's much point hiding my name anymore. I'm Rosette of Baltimare. And if you don't mind, Miss Ember, I'd like to come with you."

"Why would you want to come with me?" I asked.

"Well, I've never traveled alone, and I don't plan on starting now."

"But what about that stallion you were with earlier? Shield, right? What about him?"

She turned her head towards the corner, a pained expression going across her face. "Shield is... indisposed."

"Indisposed? Where is he that he can't come with us?"

"Over there," She said, motioning to the far corner of the room.

I gave her a questioning look before turning and trotting over to him. He didn't have his helmet on either, and so I could see his blue coat and silver mane. He appeared to be sleeping. As I looked him over, I still had to wonder, what was wrong with him that he couldn't...

Oh.

Oh no.

No wonder Rosette was crying. Shield was dead. It was evident from the blood leaking from his mouth, the dents in his armor, and the general stillness of his body. And I felt like such an idiot for not catching on to it sooner.

As I sat there, looking at the body of one of my liberators, I asked the other one what had to be the hardest thing I could have asked her.

"How did this happen?"

She didn't respond right away, and when she did, her voice wavered ever so slightly. "We were on the roof, making for the exit, and a demon appeared. It came at us from out of nowhere. It tried to crush me with its club. Shield pushed me out of the way, and he got smashed through the roof." She turned to me, her eyes glistening with what may have been tears. "But it doesn't matter now. He would want us to keep moving... to escape."

I nodded in response while I thought on what I had just heard. I had been piecing it together as she spoke; the crashing, the scream, the demon falling from above. It all made sense. Certain of the connections, I voiced my... plan, for lack of a better word.

"Well then, we'll do just that. But first, it might give you some solace to know that we'll have to get past that demon to do so, Meaning that no matter what, you'll get to avenge Shield."

Her expression seemed to change at the words, though the change was so slight I couldn't tell how. She herself couldn't seem to tell, as it took her a minute to respond. "That's good to hear. But what of Shield? We can't just leave him here. He deserves more than that."

Remembering the balcony from earlier and the stairs leading down that I hadn't taken, a hunch formed in my head. "Don't worry," I said, "We won't."

My hunch had been correct; the stairs that lead down came to a stop at the locked door I had seen in the bonfire courtyard, and it unlocked from the side we were on. After unlocking the door, we had taken Shield's body down and buried it in a shaded corner of the courtyard. Rosette even made a marker for his grave, carved with his full name, 'Glass Shield'. After we paid our respects, it seemed that night had finally encroached upon us, and so we decided to rest by the bonfire for the night.

As we were getting settled, we started to talk. As we talked, the conversation eventually came to her asking about my old sword. "Whatever happened to that sword you had on you? You know, the one with the gem in it?"

"Oh, that?" I replied, giving a chuckles as I did so. "The steel ball that hit me is sharper than  that sword. It's completely useless."

"Them why do you carry it around with you?" Rosette asked.

"Because it has sentimental value. My father gave it to me, and he got it from his father. Allmother knows where he got it from..."

"So... it's completely useless?"

"I'd have an easier time stabbing my enemies with Bread."

"Well don't I feel silly... wait, bread?"

"Yes, Bread. I've done it before. It works. Now, why do you feel silly?"

"Well," She began, "That sword is one of the main reasons we rescued you. We figured that  if you could defend yourself, it would make it easier on us, since we could escape separately."

"Well that seems reasonable. Now, you said 'one of'. What were the other reasons?"

"Let's see... unlike most of the other prisoners, you were wearing more than just rags. Your cell was also one of the easiest to get open from outside... and... well, you were the only one left that hadn't gone hollow."

"So... all the other prisoners... they're all...?"

"Mhmm. Nobody else. We looked very hard to make sure we didn't miss anyone."

"Well," I stated, "that explains why this place is so empty, at least."

There was silence for a while. Eventually, I got tired of the silence, and decided to ask a question of my own.

"So, what was that stuff you made me drink earlier? I've never heard of anything like it, and I've certainly never drank anything like it."

"It's called Estus. I'm not quite sure what it actually is, but it's more or less concentrated healing magic."

"If it's concentrated healing magic, how did you get it in a flask?" I asked.

"I don't know that either. The flasks just sort of fill themselves whenever I visit a bonfire. Here, I'll give you some." She levitated a few of the flasks of orange liquid over to me from her saddlebags as she continued speaking. "You're going to need it if we're really going to fight that demon tomorrow."

As I stowed the flasks into my bags, another question popped into my head, which I immediately blurted out without any thought into whether it would be a good idea to ask. "If Estus is concentrated healing magic, why didn't you give Shield some?"

A morose look crossed Rosette's face, and she answered, "You can't fix dead, Ember."

"Well, why didn't he revive at a bonfire then?"

With a sigh, Rosette looked towards the flickering flames. "Because as much as it pains me to say it, I think he had already accepted his death. I think he decided he was done, and that was that. I wish I knew what he was thinking..."

Seeing as Rosette was getting all mopey again, I decided to change the subject. "He was a storyteller, right?"

With a hint of mirth returning to her face, she responded, "Yes, yes he was. And a very good one, at that. I suppose you're asking because you want me to tell you one of his stories?"

I nodded, and she gave a soft chuckle before continuing.

"Alright, then. This one was one of his favorites. There was a young pony, trapped in a prison, much like the one we're in right now. Now, this pony didn't understand why she was in this prison, so of course, she tried to escape. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find a way out. But then, one day, she made a friend. When her and her new friend worked together to escape, they made it out in no time. Nopony knows where they are now, but it's said that they went to the land of the princesses, and that they live there happily to this day."

I tried very hard not too, but I couldn't contain myself, and let out a snicker at the story.

"What?" She asked, "You didn't like the story?"

"No," I replied, still snickering. "It's not that. It's just... it's so cheesy!"

"Well I liked it. But... I guess Shield told it better than I do."

"Yeah, maybe. But's it's only your first time telling it, right? You'll get better."

"I suppose so."

After we finished our chat, we both laid down on either side of the bonfire and attempted to get some sleep. Before we could get any, however, Rosette spoke up once more.

"Say, Ember?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me you me you won't die tomorrow, okay?"

"Don't worry, I won't."

"I said promise."

"Okay. I promise I won't die tomorrow."

After that short exchange, we went back to trying to drift off to sleep, and eventually we did. And it was then that I had the first dream.