Lucian was still savoring the moment—the Storm Kick he had just unleashed.
Yes, it had landed true in the heat of battle… yet it was but an echo of the original. The form was there, but the force and mastery were lacking—little more than a crude imitation of the greatest warrior Castle Sol had ever known.
Before him, the Ancient Hero of Zamor knelt in the snow, confusion clouding her eyes.
By all rights, the blizzard should have raked her foe to the bone. She had felt the frost bite his flesh during their exchange. Yet here he stood, emerging from the storm as if untouched.
If defeat was certain, then she would meet it on her own terms—she would at least die knowing why.
"Why?" she asked at last, her voice steady. "Why are you unharmed?"
The sound of her voice stunned Lucian. He had assumed the Ancient Hero—kept here in the prison for untold ages—had long since become a mindless revenant.
"You still have your mind?"
From what he recalled, she had been sealed away after the War against the Giants—an era older even than the Shattering. For her to remain lucid after so many centuries… it defied belief.
He had wondered how a mere undead could retain such refined martial skill. Now he knew—she was no undead at all.
"Our kind live long," she said simply. "The years of my captivity have not been enough to dull my thoughts."
"And now," she continued, "you owe me an answer. I would die with understanding."
Lucian nodded. "I merely used a storm to scatter your blizzard."
That was not the whole truth. In truth, he had only lent his strength—the fine shaping of the storm had been the work of the Ancient King. Lucian alone could not yet weave winds to meet snow with such perfect measure.
And he was far from unscathed. The cold had seeped through his armor, freezing the blood in his wounds.
Her eyes widened. "A storm… of such strength? Among the Banished Knights I knew in the snow mountains, not one could do such a thing."
A faint smile touched her lips. "To fall to a warrior of your strength… I can accept this end."
She closed her mouth, ready to bow her head to the blade.
But Lucian did not raise it.
If she had been a mindless husk, he would have ended it without hesitation. But she yet lived as herself—and that changed everything. He wanted the truth of the elder ages. And if she could wield frost and storm, he could learn it before ever setting foot in the snowbound home of the Zamor Knights.
The Ancient King's voice rumbled in his mind—press her about the Banished Knights. She seemed to know many of them.
The Ancient King remembered the Zamor people well—warriors of the War against the Giants, before the Erdtree's dominion swept across the Lands Between. Giants had fallen first… then storm, then Ancient Dragon. The Zamor had been the giants' chief allies.
The King was curious—how, after their defeat, had the Banished Knights come to stand alongside the Zamor of the snow mountains?
Edgar and the others of his bloodline knew little; the chain of memory had long since broken.
Lucian looked down at her—head bowed, neck bared. The air between them felt almost… awkward. He had nearly killed her, but she had given no quarter herself. They could call it even.
"I won't kill you," he said. "I didn't know you still had your mind. That fight was my mistake."
The Ancient Hero looked up, startled. "You… are not Queen Marika's executioner?"
"Executioner? No. Marika has been gone from the world for a long time. I came here only because I'd heard a powerful talisman lay sealed in this place."
She blinked, unsure how to respond. This prison held only those whose strength was matched by their crimes. None entered save for the executioners sent to end a sentence.
Yet here was this strange man, walking in unbidden.
Still… this might be fortune's hand. Perhaps, after so many years, she could finally leave.
Without a word, she dissolved the frost sealing her belly wound, plunged a hand into her own flesh, and began to search.
Lucian blinked in surprise—then remembered what Melina had told him: a talisman must be bound into the flesh to serve its bearer. She was searching for Radagon's Scarseal.
Pain rippled through her, yet she uttered no sound as her hand worked within. At last, she drew forth a smooth, gold-and-crimson object—a talisman shaped like an unblinking eye, still slick with blood and sinew. Even torn free, threads of living flesh clung to it.
She wrenched them loose; the eye dimmed without the pulse of her blood.
Holding it out to him, she said, "This is the talisman you seek. Take it—if you will lead me from this place."
Lucian accepted the bloodied seal and stowed it carefully. "I will… if you'll follow my lead for a time. I want to know what truly happened in those days—and I wish to learn your ice storm."
"If you agree, I can heal you, and see you free. No one in today's Lands Between will care if one prisoner vanishes."
Freedom was worth far more than these small terms. She would agree—she needed to. Not only for herself, but to see her kin avenged upon the Erdtree.
After the War against the Giants, the Zamor Knights had been named "heroes". But such honor from the Erdtree was fleeting. Once Godfrey had swept aside its foes, their standing crumbled. She had been summoned without cause, and bound here. If the strongest of her kin was so taken, she could only imagine what befell the rest.
—
From the prison they emerged—Lucian with the towering Ancient Hero of Zamor at his back. She gave her name at last: Elyssa.
With the red flask he had given her, her wounds had fully closed.
Elyssa drank in the sight of the world beyond the bars—familiar vistas seen daily from afar, yet never touched. She drew a long, slow breath.
Farewell, cage.
Lucian pointed toward the crumbling shell of a chapel on the mountainside. "Let's go there. I have much to ask you."
She nodded, and they set out.
Midway, a thought flickered in Lucian's mind—most who rotted in the Erdtree's prisons were foes of its will. And burning the Erdtree was a step he could not avoid if he wished to be king.
Perhaps there were others worth freeing.
A gathering of the wronged and the mighty… the Avengers.