"Who's there...?" The Tarnished turned toward the voice from atop Torrent. A petite girl appeared before him, dressed in a snow-white robe and an enormous white sorcerer's hat, her skin as blue as the starry sky. Blending with the night light spilling over her, her beauty made her seem like something out of a dream.
The girl had many unusual features. Her left eyes were as profound as the full moon, while an ethereal, delicate woman's face floated to her right. Mysterious blue runes trailed from the corner of that woman's eye, and her closed left eye overlapped with the girl's right. The girl's own right eye was shut, much like Melina's.
She also had two pairs of arms.
Faced with such a beautiful girl, who seemed as though she could exist only in dreams, the Tarnished opened his mouth and said this:
"Huh? Where did this blue-skinned, four-armed freak come from? Is that Grafting?" The Tarnished took half a step back.
"...You insolent lout!" The girl truly had not expected this reaction from the man before her. Oh, so all you Tarnished are this vulgar?
"Never mind... Never mind." The girl steadied herself a little before saying coolly, "I recently heard of a Tarnished riding a Spectral Steed around these lands."
"It took me some time to find you." The girl folded her hands elegantly. There was a faint air of nobility about her as she regarded the Tarnished calmly, showing none of the awkwardness his rudeness had just caused her.
"Oh, so it's not Grafting..." The Tarnished took a closer look. It really did not seem like it. The girl was not grafted; she was a doll.
"..." Perhaps because she was a doll, the girl showed no expression, but the atmosphere around her conveyed her current frustration.
"It's you, isn't it... the Tarnished who can summon Torrent?" She still did not lose her temper and patiently asked him.
"Torrent? Never heard of him."
"..."
"Then what... are you riding?" The girl eyed Torrent and the Tarnished as though looking at an idiot.
"You saw wrong." In the blink of an eye, the Tarnished dismissed Torrent and looked at the girl, who was barely taller than him even while sitting on a stone.
"How interesting..." The girl's voice trembled slightly. "I am Witch Renna. Let me ask you again: you can summon the Spectral Steed named Torrent, can't you?"
This woman really is patient, the Tarnished thought, yet he kept shaking his head in denial. As he watched her, an urge to tease her arose within him.
That doll body has no expressions. She's even worse than Melina. Let's tease her some more.
"Fine... So you intend to deny it to the bitter end? Fine, fine..." The girl calling herself Renna lowered both pairs of hands.
"Lost your temper and ready to hit me, huh? Grafted monsters really are hotheaded."
"Stop mentioning that loathsome Grafting, Tarnished!" At last, the girl could no longer maintain her composure. Her previously calm voice rose considerably, though her expression remained unchanged.
This girl's kind of funny.
"Okay."
"..." The girl was utterly speechless. How could someone like this even exist?
"I will ask you one last time. It's you, isn't it? The Tarnished who can summon the Spectral Steed Torrent?"
"You already saw it. Why are you still asking?" The Tarnished stared straight at the girl, his eyes full of bewilderment.
"..." The question stumped her. Indeed, why am I still asking? Could this Tarnished have the ability to influence people's minds? Have I already fallen under his influence?
"You... You have brought shame upon a witch. I will remember you." After pondering by herself for quite some time, that was all the girl managed to squeeze out. She left two things behind, then turned into blue light and vanished from the Tarnished's sight.
"Is this the latest way to travel in the Lands Between? How strange. Looks like I really have fallen behind the times." Some people could travel as light, while others were still riding horses. How sad. How lamentable.
The Tarnished gave a feigned sorrowful sigh, then walked over to where Renna had vanished and picked up a box of Spirit Ashes and a Bell.
"She's surprisingly nice. Even left me gifts before she went. Now I almost feel guilty." The Tarnished quickly stuffed them into his pocket, and just then, Boc's voice came from nearby.
"My benefactor! We meet again!" Boc shouted as he ran toward him. "Miss Melina told you, didn't she?"
"She did." After answering, the Tarnished took Boc into the Church of Elleh.
"This place is fairly safe. While you're in Limgrave, stay here for now," the Tarnished told Boc.
"Are you going to continue onward? Would you tell Boc your goal?" Boc wanted to do everything in his power to support his benefactor's aspirations, even if sewing was all he could do.
"I'm heading to Leyndell to become the new lord." The Tarnished spoke casually, but his words carried an air of unshakable resolve.
"You're going to become a lord... Then I will follow you for the rest of my life." Determination shone in Boc's eyes.
"Heh. There aren't many people as innocent as you in the Lands Between these days." The Tarnished saw some admirable qualities in Boc.
"You're my benefactor. It's only right." Boc smiled a little bashfully.
After resting for a while in the Church of Elleh, the Tarnished wanted to continue onward.
"It's time to head to Stormhill. Can the storms of old still blow?"
"Didn't you say you were going to rest...?" Melina, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly spoke.
"Ah... Right. I forgot without even realizing it." If Melina had not spoken up, he would almost have forgotten again.
"Oh, you're going to rest? Then I'll make you some bedding right away." Hearing this, Boc immediately perked up and rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"All right, but this time I'll just find somewhere and take a short rest."
Before long, the Tarnished fell fast asleep in the Church of Elleh. Yet he never truly had a quiet moment; trouble always found its way to him.
"Another dream?" As soon as he fell asleep, the Tarnished returned to the dream he had visited before.
"Trina, it's you again, isn't it?"
"Tarnished, do you never sleep...?" Hearing the Tarnished call, Trina immediately appeared. Unlike last time, however, she was no longer so reserved after their fairly lengthy previous conversation.
"I'm a busy man." The Tarnished shrugged.
"That's exactly why I sent you some help, to make your journey a little easier." An innocent smile bloomed on Trina's lovely face.
"Huh? What help?"
"Hehe, guess." Trina acted mysterious, sending the Tarnished into a brief spell of thought.
"Did you send Torrent?"
"You got it~" Trina softly clapped her little hands. "I told you last time, didn't I? I've been watching you since you arrived at the Chapel of Anticipation. I know you jumped off the cliff, too."
"A Tarnished descended from warriors truly fears no danger." Trina was rather impressed. Even without Grace, their courage was etched deep into their souls.
"I'm not a descendant." The Tarnished shook his head helplessly.
"Oh, is that so?" Trina seemed a little surprised.
"Most of those coming to the Lands Between now are descendants of the Tarnished who were exiled back then, but I was actually among the first to campaign alongside Godfrey." He was not deliberately showing off about fighting alongside the first lord. After all, such things were hardly worth mentioning now. He merely wanted Trina to understand him a little better.
"You, you, you..." Trina suddenly became tongue-tied, leaving the Tarnished baffled.
"Grandpa!" Trina suddenly pointed a fair little finger at the Tarnished.
"Shut up, brat! I'm not old!" Though he called himself old, he would not allow anyone else to say it.
"Say that again and I'll spank you." At the Tarnished's threat, Trina immediately closed her mouth and blinked her glittering Golden Eyes.
"Anyway, Torrent chose me because of you too, right? Then you know Melina?"
"Ah... Yes." Trina nodded. "I asked Melina to look after Torrent for a while."
"Your horse is pretty unusual. Half bull, half horse."
"Torrent is a good child. He is a life born within the Haligtree through Mother's power... Though he seems much like the Omen curse, he is actually closer to a creation incorporating my ideals. Personally, I don't really agree with calling the Omen a curse," Trina said seriously.
"I heard that in the past, being an Omen was a blessing called the Aspects of the Crucible, right? Like golden grace is now."
"Yes. I've read books about it. In the past, life mingled together without distinction. Many creatures had wings, horns, or scales."
"You mean like the Misbegotten?"
"Yes. I've always wondered... We're all members of the same family of life, so why must we discriminate against one another? Setting aside those who cannot speak, communicate, or empathize, most living beings have no such barriers between them. Yet our ingrained prejudice means we have never spoken with them peacefully. I think that's very sad."
"Perhaps that's precisely why the Golden Order shattered instead of enduring." Trina's expression dimmed a little.
"It's truly admirable that you think that way. In the Lands Between... especially among the golden nobility, many are terribly racist. They discriminate against this and that, and in the end, even the warriors who opened up a new era for them were scorned once they were branded Tarnished."
"Utterly laughable." The Tarnished sneered disdainfully. Though people's present discrimination against the Tarnished was part of Marika's plan, even before that, warriors like them had often endured mockery from the useless nobles who hid behind the scenes. Many resented these warriors, considering them barbaric and vulgar. Even without Marika's deliberate intervention, discrimination against the Tarnished would still have existed.
"Thank you for all you've endured... Tarnished." Trina sympathized with what the Tarnished had suffered. Even within her own Haligtree, discrimination still existed. She had not done enough.
Trina stood on tiptoe, wanting to pat the Tarnished's head, but the difference in their heights was too great. No matter how she jumped, she could not reach him. Watching Trina hop up and down, the Tarnished wore a faint smile and bent toward her.
"Yay, I reached!" Trina stroked the Tarnished's head with her little hand, an angelic smile on her face. It soothed his soul, though he did not have any psychological scars...
"I'll work hard to eliminate this discrimination between races, so please make sure you become lord."
"Say no more. Of course I will." The Tarnished smiled back. The girl before him truly was perfect enough. In both beauty and character, as Marika's descendant, she was someone Marika could be proud of, far better than Godrick.
"Speaking of which, did you need something from me this time?"
"No. I'm just so bored. It's lonely staying in the Haligtree all by myself." Trina sat down beside the Tarnished.
"Aren't there plenty of people at your Haligtree? How are you lonely?"
"No..." Trina shook her head with a complicated expression. "I mean that I'm personally inside the Haligtree."
"Huh? You're trapped inside the tree?" The Tarnished raised an eyebrow and looked at Trina.
"Mm... Calling it trapped isn't quite accurate, but I really can't leave. My power is very weak right now. Even just talking to you is already a struggle."
"So that's how it is. Looks like I really do need to visit the Haligtree and meet your true body." The Tarnished smiled.
"I'm looking forward to it, but there's no need to hurry. The Haligtree is very far from Limgrave. As a warrior who fought in ancient times, you know that, right? The Haligtree is up in those snowy mountains."
"That really is quite a distance."
"I'll always be waiting for you, Tarnished." Trina smiled sweetly.
Afterward, the two chatted a little longer about the scenery around the Haligtree.
"It's about time. I should leave now. I wish you a smooth journey." Trina waved.
"Yeah. See you again." The Tarnished turned his back and waved as he walked toward the shadows. Before long, darkness enveloped him, and then he slowly opened his eyes.
"I'm feeling nicely refreshed." Trina's dream had not tired him out. On the contrary, every time he met Trina, he felt especially energized afterward.
"All right... Stormhill... Time to set out!"
Before you continue