Embers crosses two fates
Characters
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Story transcript
Tarnished: (Another night, another momentary respite from the endless hunt for grace.)
Chosen Undead: (A bonfire. And someone else. Friend or foe in this cursed land?)
Tarnished: Identify yourself, wanderer. Friend or foe?
Chosen Undead: Neither enemy nor truly friend. Just another undying soul seeking purpose.
Chosen Undead: May I share your fire?
Tarnished: The fire welcomes all who still have sense enough not to attack on sight.
Tarnished: Crimson tears? It's not Estus, but it serves its purpose.
Chosen Undead: You know of Estus? You're not from my realm, yet you seem... familiar somehow.
Chosen Undead: They call me the Chosen Undead. Though I never chose this fate.
Tarnished: I'm called the Tarnished. This scar? A gift from Malenia's blade. Died to her perhaps twenty times before I finally prevailed.
Tarnished: Death has become more of an inconvenience than an end.
Chosen Undead: I know this curse well. Ornstein and Smough slew me countless times. The Bell Gargoyles. Seath the Scaleless.
Chosen Undead: Each death was a lesson written in blood and frustration.
Tarnished: To our shared curse then. The inability to truly die, forever bound to our singular purpose.
Tarnished: Whether linking flames or becoming Elden Lord, we're slaves to destiny.
Chosen Undead: (Something moves in the darkness. Not hollows. Something larger.)
Tarnished: You hear that? Movement in the trees. Something large.
Chosen Undead: Our respite ends, as it always must. Ready yourself, Tarnished.
Tarnished: Always another battle. Always another death.
Tarnished: I grow weary of this endless cycle.
Chosen Undead: Perhaps... we need not face our burdens alone, at least for a time.
Chosen Undead: Two cursed warriors might fare better than one.
Tarnished: East leads to Limgrave. I seek a demigod who possesses a Great Rune.
Tarnished: Your company would be... welcome. None else understands this curse we bear.
Chosen Undead: It would be strange to fight alongside another, rather than as a phantom or against invaders.
Chosen Undead: But perhaps our curses aligned for purpose. Lead on, Tarnished.
Tarnished: Together until our paths must diverge. Our worlds call us to different fates.
Tarnished: But for now, we fight as one.
Chosen Undead: (Perhaps in sharing our burdens, we might find meaning beyond our curse. For the first time in countless deaths, I am not alone in understanding.)