Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Chapter 14: Nepheli Loux

A/N: Poor Nepheli. Just trying to be a hero in a world that doesn't want them and doesn't appreciate them v.v

-x-X-x-

Nepheli Loux was no stranger to death. She had caused her fair share of it in the course of her life. After all, she was a warrior, and to be a warrior was to walk alongside death, to live with the possibility of death every day, in every battle.

... This was not the sort of death she walked alongside. Kneeling there on the hillside path, staring at the pile of bodies before her, Nepheli Loux finds herself at a complete loss for words. There is nothing to be said here. No honor to be taken from this act. This... this monstrosity is not what she expected to find, when she left the Roundtable Hold on her next adventure.

Despair thick in the air, wailing filling her ears, Nepheli can only gaze in horror at the death and destruction wrought upon this place. The Lands Between are filled with misery. She knew this already. But there was also beauty to be found in everything. Or so Nepheli had always thought. So her father had always told her.

Where was the beauty to be found in this? This wanton destruction, this one-sided aggression. Perhaps it merely hit closer to home for Nepheli because... because she'd been here before. Heh, and to think, she'd thought herself past it. She'd thought she'd grown beyond the horrors of her past. But no, kneeling here, on the footpath up to the Village of the Albinaurics, Nepheli Loux can't help but be drawn back there, to the memories that she'd repressed from oh so long ago.

She knew of the Albinaurics, of course. Her father had made sure of it. They were not native to the Erdtree. They were, as her father put it, artificial life. As such, they could not touch grace. They could never bask in the warmth of the Erdtree. They were spurned creatures, one and all, both the First Generation and the next.

Yes, from the studies foisted upon her by her father, the All-Knowing, Nepheli understood the Albinaurics to be split into two distinct, disparate subgroups. There were the second generation Albinaurics, short and stout creatures with smooth, leathery grey skin, bald heads, and bulbous eyes. They could be found all over Liurnia of the Lakes, but they could also be found elsewhere as well.

And then there were the first generation Albinaurics. Beyond lacking the Erdtree's grace, beyond their artificial nature, they were indistinguishable from humans... or at least, they had been. This here, where Nepheli was now, had been their Village. This here, nestled in the undercroft of the massive cliff-face, had been their sanctuary.

No longer. The cursemongers had come upon the Village of the Albinaurics with a ferocity and a monstrosity that left even Nepheli aghast. The first generation Albinaurics were no fighters. They were not warriors. Nepheli certainly did not think anything less of them for it, but neither did she expect them to defend themselves.

The entire point of their location was to refuge in subterfuge instead. By setting up their Village here, under the mountain range, they should have been safe and protected from the many dangers that infested Liurnia of the Lakes.

Instead, they had been set upon by monsters wearing armor and cloth. They had been preyed upon by the worst sorts of creatures. There was no salvation to be found for the Albinaurics here. One might even say that those who lived were worse off than those who had already died. Indeed, their suffering could be heard even now, and it made Nepheli's teeth grit together, her hands clenching into fists at her sides.

She knew... she knew of the first generation Albinaurics' beliefs. How they put their faith in something called the Haligtree. How it was said to be their Promised Land, that only they knew the secret path to reach it after all this time.