Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Bonus Chapter #10: Roderika

A/N: Behold, the Jellyfish Chapter! I struggled with how to write this, to be honest. There just didn't seem to be enough here for a full chapter. But I really wanted to include it all the same.

Then I figured out what I was missing. Or rather, WHO I was missing. Obviously, if we're going to have a Jellyfish chapter... we can't have it without Roderika.

-x-X-x-

Roderika wasn't entirely sure what her Tarnished intended, by taking her on this journey to the forbidden lands, far to the North. The Mountaintops of the Giants, she'd heard them called. Luckily, the two of them had yet to see a giant on their travels. It had been nice, riding with her Tarnished on Torrent's back, traveling with him all the way here. But she still had no idea what precisely their purpose here was.

To be fair, it was at least partially her fault. She hadn't bothered to ask. Not that her Tarnished spoke much. Hearing him speak to affirm their vows at that rather off-the-cuff wedding Lady Loux had arranged for them was certainly something, but beyond that, he was still silent as ever. Roderika didn't begrudge him that.

All the same, she could have asked questions, posited ideas, and likely figured out some details from his reactions. He was very emotive, the new Elden Lord. Her Tarnished was an open book at times, easy enough to read if one knew what they were looking for. She hadn't even tried though. He'd offered her his hand while on the back of Torrent, his Spectral Steed, and she'd taken it, letting him pull her up onto the saddle behind him and riding off with her, right then and there.

They'd been traveling together for a day and a night now. She'd started out at his back, hugging him tightly from behind, but this morning when they'd remounted, she'd ended up in front of him, his arms wrapped around her waist to hold Torrent's reins. It was an intimate traveling experience to be sure, and one Roderika had thoroughly enjoyed, even as they'd crossed into these utterly frozen lands and continued on their way.

Now... now they must finally be nearing their ultimate destination. After traveling in a circuitous route that ultimately took them high up onto cliff-faces overlooking the roads they'd initially rode along to get to this place, they were nearing a set of what looked like ruins. The plateau these ruins sit upon is located between two bridges... and it's entirely possible they're just passing through, but Roderika has this itch behind her ears that tells her no... no, this is the place.

There's a building, budding anticipation within her right now. It has nothing to do with her and her Tarnished's relationship, nothing to do with the man who she could now call husband thanks to the ring upon her finger, and everything to do with her status as a Spirit Tuner. There was something about this place. It was...

"My Lord... where have you brought me?"

He doesn't answer her, of course, save to guide Torrent around the edges of the ruins, rather than through. They move to the back of the area first, and soon Roderika finds herself dismounting. To his credit, her Lord Husband does offer her his hand again. Feeling no small amount of trepidation at this point, Roderika nevertheless takes it.

She isn't a scared little girl anymore, after all. When she came to the Lands Between, she was adrift. The machinations back in her homeland that had seen her, and her subjects driven out in exile, had left her blank-minded and uncertain of herself. She was of noble blood... but she was not deserving of noble recognition, not anymore.

And then her weakness... it had gotten her men killed. Worse than killed, in many a case. She'd broken, for a time after that. Broken and lost her way, becoming little more than a rambling madwoman, her words as nonsensical as the thoughts in her head. Her reality hadn't seemed to make sense, and so she'd stopped trying to make sense of it.