Melina

A/N: Here we are at the sort-of-end of the fic. This is the Epilogue. But also, 14 bonus chapters as previously mentioned. Will be daily, just as the main story was, so look forward to that!

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It was over. And yet, at the same time, it was just beginning. The Shattering had at long last ended, while a new Age had already begun to take its place. They didn't have a name for it yet, but as Melina makes her way down the hall, she reflects that that's not her responsibility. She's done all she needed to do. She's accomplished all she set out to accomplish.

Reaching her destination, Melina divests herself of her cloak. Underneath, she wears not the normal traveling clothes she usually manifests in, but practically nothing at all. Indeed, all she has on is a pair of skimpy black undergarments that hug her crotch and her hips but hide nothing else from the imagination.

Her busty, beautiful body on display, she steps into the room where her beloved awaits her with more confidence in her stride than she truly feels. His gaze goes to her, and an admiring smile spreads across his face that sees Melina straightening her spine and squaring her shoulders, as well as smiling back. Walking over to the bed, she crawls up onto it.

The early morning sun peeks through the nearby windows, and he lays there naked, covered from the waist down by a blanket. She, of course, moves to pull said blanket away, and reveal his throbbing morning wood.

"Brave Tarnished. You have done it. You have accomplished all you set out to accomplish. You have achieved every goal you sought to achieve."

Wrapping a hand around his mast, Melina's single eye flickers between his twitching shaft and his handsome face. She licks her lips then and asks the most pertinent question on her mind.

"But what, I wonder, did it truly cost you?"

She's not expecting an answer, of course. Nothing beyond perhaps a sad little smile, and a shake of his head to show her that he's fine, that she doesn't need to worry about him. She won't heed such a warning of course, but she won't be surprised when it comes. She is, however, VERY surprised when he actually DOES respond.

"… E…verything."

Melina's head whips up with a jolt, her eye widening as she stares at her Tarnished in disbelief. Then comes the sad smile of his, and the shake of his head.

"And… not much… at all."

Her mouth is opening and closing, and Melina is fairly certain she's doing an admirable impression of a fish at the moment. He's… talking? After all this time? She'd thought she heard him, back under Leyndell in the depths of the Frenzied Flame Proscription, but she'd half-convinced herself she was just imagining things.

Now though? Now there's no imagining it. His lips are moving. Words are coming out. Forgetting the cock in her hand altogether, Melina shuffles forward, moving up until she can rest her forehead against his, her hand on his neck and then sliding up to his cheek to caress it.

"T-Tell me about it? Please?"

When he nods a moment later, Melina lets out a shaky breath, a wide smile spreading across her face as the feeling of liquid coming from her open eye startles her. She's crying. But they're tears of joy, at the very least. And so, she settles in, to hear her Tarnished's tale.

-x-X-x-

Hours later, or so it feels, Melina lays with her head against her beloved champion's chest, soaking it all in, absorbing all that he's told her. The new Elden Lord, who had seemed to so easily ferret out not just her secrets, but the secrets of every single person he came across, had the biggest secret of all. And she, of all people, was the only one he'd entrusted it with.

To think that her Tarnished had not always been what he was now. To think that a long, long time ago… and at the same time, no time at all, he had been just another faceless, nameless weakling of no renown. And that she'd chosen him anyways.

But then, it made sense, after a fashion. How he always knew what to do. How he was perfect in every way so very effortlessly. His fighting style was so varied and myriad that one couldn't truly place where he'd trained. Well, the answer was simple. He'd trained right here in the Lands Between, across a hundred different instructors, some willing and some mere enemies who unknowingly gave him tutelage in their techniques across hundreds if not thousands of resets.

He had lived this life countless times. He had existed in the Lands Between longer than any other entity. Longer than the Eternal Sovereign. Longer than the Elden Beast. It was no wonder he knew what lay under every stone. It was no wonder he knew what could be found within every heart. His knowledge of these lands, and of their inhabitants, went beyond what even Queen Marika could lay claim to. Indeed, it went beyond even that of the Outer Gods who sought to exert their Will from on high.

Letting out a shuddering breath, Melina looks upon her Tarnished with fresh eyes. She had thought, based off their first meeting, that he simply had no need for Runes. That he was too strong for there to be any point to them. Only now did she recognize his entire impossible strength was built on them… on what SHE had done for him.

For even when he was but a weakling, she had apparently been there for him every step of the way. Heh, all this time, she had fretted over not being able to provide value to him, she had felt useless and unimportant. But if he was to be believed, she was one of the most important elements of his tale, and of his success.

Countless versions of her, lost to the past, had stepped up and strengthened him, time and time again. How many runes had he'd gathered, to become Complete as he was? How many versions of Melina had he entreated, to turn those same runes into strength? She was not pointless. She was not useless. Whether he knew it or not, telling her this truth was the greatest gift he ever could have given her.

Though it did beg another question…

"… How many times? How many times did it take you… to get it right?"

She looks up at him then, into his eyes, and sees his response even before he gives it. She's gotten good at reading his thoughts just from his face, by this point.

"E… nough."

And she's glad she has, because that single word answer doesn't even begin to tell the tale that she sees in her chosen champion's eyes. A tale of pain and agony, of torture and death and worst of all, failure. She doesn't even question how many times he likely died. Death itself was not uncommon in the Lands Between, nor was it as permanent as it might be elsewhere.

No, it wasn't death that haunted her Tarnished. It was the blunders, the mishaps. How many times had he gone through this all, just to get it right? And not just 'right', because that could have meant any number of things. No, looking at him as he is now, Melina can see it clearly… he had gone back again and again to get it Perfect.

He would not have stopped, her Tarnished. Not so long as he hadn't explored every way, every path, every avenue. Everything he'd done since she'd met him, since this version of her had met him, had been to get this Happy Ending. For her… and for all the others.

It was no wonder he had refused to let her sacrifice herself. She'd been afraid of letting him get too attached and had even tried to pull away at one point to avoid it. But that was always a lost cause. He was already attached when they first met. He would always be attached to her. She wasn't just a kindling maiden to him… she was his companion, forevermore.

And the others? The others too, must have wormed their way into her Tarnished's heart over the course of thousands and thousands of lifetimes. For him to go out of his way for all of them, to save some from certain death and others from fates worse than death… to reunite lost family members and retrieve others from toxic situations.

He had been unwavering, for all the time that she had known him. Because he knew what needed to be done. He'd had his Plan, just as he'd whispered to her down in the Frenzied Flame Proscription. And he had not strayed from it for even a moment.

She could not blame him for the actions he'd taken. Not when it had all worked. He was Elden Lord. Queen Marika still lived and had been browbeaten into sharing her throne with Lunar Princess Ranni. The Lands Between had two Gods now, and a mortal Tarnished to bridge the gap between them. The Outer Gods were driven out by the new nature of the repaired Elden Ring, and the Golden Order would be forced to accept that they were no longer the only law in the land.

With Marika on board and Radagon and the Elden Beast no longer in the picture, the transition of power from a Golden Order-dominated Lands Between to something much more fluid and… free-thinking wouldn't be too rough. And if it was, Melina was sure that her Tarnished would be there to step in and handle things with his own two hands.

Though, there is one more thing that makes her wonder.

"If you could talk all this time… why not just explain? Surely you could find the right words?"

He just shakes his head, looking solemn and even somewhat withdrawn.

"N… ever could. Words… aren't my s… trong suit. Always… said the wrong thing. So… eventually I stopped saying anything. That's w… hen I made progress…"

She tries to imagine it. Tries to imagine him attempting to explain things to her, or any of the others. She tries to imagine what she might have done, if he'd confessed everything at the start of their journey together. She tries to envision what it would mean, if he'd brought her on board. It's embarrassing to realize she knows exactly what she would have done, exactly what a few versions of her likely HAD done to him in the past, when he'd tried to explain.

Melina held no doubt in her heart that she would have attempted to undermine him at every turn. Upon learning that he knew of her true purpose and wanted to circumvent it, she would likely have fought him tooth and nail. It wasn't until he'd forced her to stick around, wasn't until he'd taken her to the literal end of time itself, that she'd begun to truly believe.

She was, at the end of the day, the kindling maiden after all. Her purpose was always to burn. Even if he could find another way to burn the brambles and save her life, Melina would not have appreciated it, not as she was back when their journey began, or even as she was before they'd reached the bottom of Farum Azula.

Only through his actions, had he shown her another way forward. Only through the impossible things she'd bore witness to, had she come to accept that there was purpose and use to her beyond simply burning up.

Thinking of all the others he'd helped as well… she could only imagine how some of them might have reacted, had he tried to tell them. His Plan… his schemes were not always conducive to what those he had come to love wanted. Indeed, quite a few of them likely would have fought him, and almost certainly had as well.

By staying silent, he'd let them all form their own opinions about what he was thinking, about what he was aiming for. By saying not a word, he had let them put their own words in his mouth, allowing him to fit whatever hole in the puzzle that they wanted him to fill. His silence, Melina quickly realizes, truly was the best path available to him. How irritating. How aggravating. Even now, he was always so damn right, wasn't he?

Sucking in a deep breath, Melina lifts her head from her Tarnished's chest and moves into his lap. Her hand hadn't left his cock in all that time, truth be told, so he's still rock hard, even after they'd been talking for what felt like an eternity. It's all too easy, slipping aside her undergarments and impaling herself upon his member.

He groans, and his hands grip at her hips subconsciously as she grinds down into his lap, circling and swaying her hips back and forth. Melina moans, quivering in enjoyment of the act for a long moment, before draping her arms over his neck and giving him a soft smile.

"I was right before. You really are a self-sacrificing asshole, my beloved."

His answering smile, a hint of apology to it, lets her know that it's not the first time through he's heard that from her lips. For the briefest of moments Melina feels insecure. He'd has thousands upon thousands more conversations with her than she's had with him, hasn't he? How is that fair? How can she ever hope to compete?

Then, he thrusts up into her from below, and Melina is immediately reminded of their relationship dynamic as his throbbing erection punches deep into her body, pressing up against her womb itself. Without even thinking about it, her hands come off of his shoulders and go behind her back. She grabs ahold of her forearms and shudders as she restrains herself for him.

Her breasts, jutting out as a result of this maneuver, bounce and jiggle as he holds her by the hips and helps her to ride him. Of course… she wasn't meant to compete. Nothing had truly changed, now, had it? She was still his tool. Still his toy. Still his… his woman till the end of her days. Melina moans, only for one of his big, strong hands to reach up and grab hold of her hair, pulling her into a deep, tongue-filled kiss.

He's aggressive, though also gentle. He's firm, yet kind. Her inner walls flex around his shaft, even as he fills her, again and again and again.

Perhaps she is the only one he will tell this truth to. She's not entirely sure how the others would react, after all. The knowledge might ruin things, might break them. For her, it was proof of that old saying 'the truth will set you free'. For others, it might not be.

But Melina would leave that up to her beloved. She would never, ever betray his trust. Not to her mother. Not to any of his other women. After he'd worked for so long to craft this Happy Ending for all of them, how could she possibly do anything to ruin it?

Though, even as she rides him, and he in turn bounces her up and down on his member, even as they embrace in their own unique way, Melina feels like there's still things he probably isn't telling her. But then, of course there no doubt is. She would never know just how many lives he'd lived, how many times he'd experienced this journey with her.

Who could say what had taken place, in that insane, ever-repeating past of his? Who could say whether there were some he hadn't been able to save, some he hadn't managed to bring all the way through to this end?

He had managed things she'd consider impossible, by getting women like Marika and Ranni to reconcile. But no doubt, even her Tarnished had his limits. Even her chosen champion had his failures. There was not a single spark of uncertainty in her mind that this was the Happiest Ending her Tarnished could achieve, nay, that anyone could possibly achieve.

But that didn't mean he hadn't suffered setbacks and failures alike, nor that those setbacks and failures hadn't left their marks on him.

As the only one who knew, it would fall to her to be there for him, to be there to fill any of the darker holes she found in his heart. She was, after all, a kindling maiden. It was her purpose, to light the way. And he, her Tarnished, would never be alone ever again.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Yep. Tarnished speaks. Melina is the only one who gets to know the truth and even she will never know what he fully went through. No intentions of revealing his secret looping abilities to any of the others. Though he will talk again in at least a few of the bonus chapters.

Also, Melina's musings at the end of this chapter are 100% foreshadowing for tomorrow's first bonus chapter. Get ready folks, it's a sad one. Probably the only chapter of this entire fic that completely throws out the Happy Ending bit. Which is why its a bonus chapter.

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated/encouraged! Let me know what you think!

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