ALL NIGHT LONG, TILL MORN.
⭒ Tonight, Malenia’s curse hungers.
content warning : chronic illness and disability, references to divine affliction, depictions of physical pain, references to amputation and prosthetics, body horror elements (blame the scarlet rot), blindness and sensory deprivation, dependency and trust dynamics (healthy and consensual), 16+.
author’s note : i read the description of radahn’s great rune during my replay, and it said that it burned to resist the scarlet rot, so… you’ve got to bear with me since i gave reader some sort of very vague fire-power powerful enough to at least soothe the effects of malenia’s curse on herself (even if temporary). pre-shattering btw.
Under the layered blankets, Malenia lay curled in on herself.
Her breath came shallow as the pain travelled through her body with the slow, efficient cruelty of a conquering horde. It came in tide-like pulses : a tightening beneath her ribs, then a burn flooding what limbs remained to her still, ending with the horribly familiar flare at the base of her spine that made her prosthetic leg twitch uselessly.
Some days, the rot was strangely merciful, quiet as a secret. Yet, tonight, her curse hungered with a fervour that made her fingers tremble and her pulse stutter in her throat.
Malenia exhaled through her teeth, and pressed her cheek deeper into her pillow, listening to the faint rustle of leaves outside the window.
Her right arm lay across her stomach, heavy with the weight of gold. The joints whined softly, too gently to give comfort, too rigid to be completely ignored. Her left hip was numb, the whisper of a phantom ache trailing where her leg had once been. The flesh throbbed dully behind the brass, as though it could will the prosthesis itself to hurt on its behalf. Today, Miquella’s needle was of no help.
She felt blind in a sharper way than usual. It was suffocating. Darkness pressed close, intimate, absolute, without the faintest shimmer to soften its edges.
Even beneath the bloomed rot over her eyes, she could not see the moonlight she knew must be slipping through the curtains. She could not see the glow of the slowly cooling coals inside the hearth. She could not see the figure she was waiting for, though she could hear the faint echo of your footsteps and the echo of your voice in the adjoining chamber.
It shouldn’t hurt this much, she thought bitterly. Not tonight. Not after all the progress Miquella swears he felt. O Mother, why does it sting like this ?
Malenia’s breath caught. That vicious plague surged under her ribs like fresh molten metal being poured into a shape.
She clenched her jaw until her teeth ached.
The door’s latch clicked, and fire entered the room.
It wasn’t a roar, or a blaze, but a soft warmth that felt like a second heartbeat. You stepped in with that effortless weight she could always recognise, every step grounded and measured in the way few things in the world ever were. Even without seeing it, she felt your presence spreading across the room, filling it with heat akin to an ember cupped in a careful hand.
“My lady,” you said, voice quiet yet carrying the faint rasp it always took when you’d been working too deeply in the training yard. “You’re awake.”
A soft huff slipped from her. “I am aware.”
Like a giant trying not to break a shrine, you shut the door quietly.
For a moment, she was allowed to simply listen to you shift. Your boots moved against the marble floors in soft thuds, and a brief flare of heat warmed her when you sighed deeply. Your mantle, when you stripped it off, brought the dreamy music of thin crystals clinking together. It was a years-old idea of yours, so Malenia would be able to identify you by hearing, way before she could simply recognise you by instinct alone.
She knew these sounds the way scholars knew constellations : each in its proper place, each marking a point of safety in her private map of the world.
The bed dipped under your weight. You liked to collapse onto it the way a felled beast would, but you reserved such leisure for the days Malenia’s curse did not rage. Tonight, you eased yourself down beside her, slow enough that she felt each inch of the mattress stir.
Without a word, you gathered her into your arms. The warmth of you poured over her like honey.
Malenia exhaled shakily, allowing herself to be drawn against your chest. Her cheek pressed to the spot near your collarbone, where she could feel the steady thrum beneath your skin. It reminded her of a forge-fire reduced to patient embers.
“My love…” she murmured, voice cracking slightly. “It burns.”
You stroked a hand along her back, fingertips tracing the scarred path where rot had once burst through her flesh in one cruel blossom. “Where ?”
“Then I shall be everywhere,” you vowed.
Your embrace tightened just enough to press your flame deeper through her, and she felt the gentle first bloom of it unfurl beneath her skin. It was not enough to scorch, to overwhelm, but perfect to push back the rot’s invasive flare. It felt like sunlight finally slithering through her ribs.
Relief flickered through her nerves like sparks rising from kindling.
You kissed her temple, her cheek, and the angle near her jaw. How grounding, she thought. Then again, you’d always been grounding.
“You should have called for me sooner,” you murmured against her skin.
“I did not want to trouble you.”
“You say that,” she said, trying for a smile. Her voice trembled traitorously, “only because you haven’t had a night where the rot wakes me every hour.”
“I have,” you replied softly. “I would just rather you forget those.”
She felt her lips twitch. A small, weary laugh escaped her, brittle at first before it warmed as your thumb brushed her cheekbone with the utmost care. Your fire pulsed again—this time, deeper, threading through the cage of her ribs until her breath loosened. The pain did not vanish, but it did dull, almost like a bloodthirsty beast deciding to turn its head away.
She sank further against you.
Your hand slipped beneath the back of her head, cradling it as though she were made of something precious and breakable. She wasn’t. Malenia hated being fragile. With you, however, fragility felt quite different, intimate instead of being shameful. A truth shared instead of a vulnerability exposed.
“I do not,” she muttered.
Your arm tightened around her waist, anchoring her whole trembling body against the warmth of you. “You do. It is alright.”
When her sight had gone, touch became the world. The feeling of your chest rising slowly beneath her palm, the faint scent of smoke clinging to your skin, the soft hum of heat radiating from your very core… to Malenia, they felt as much part of the Haligtree as Miquella’s own blood, soothing her in places she didn’t know could ache.
Your lips brush her temple once more.
“Tell me where it’s worse.”
“The shoulder. Left side,” she whispered. “And around my ribs. It feels like… ah, like something sharp is trying to pry them open.” If it weren’t for how calm you still were, she would’ve believed her chest was already torn open. “Worse than yesterday.”
You cursed under your breath, vexed by the plague rather than by her. Never at her, she knew.
“Lie back,” you whispered. “Allow me to burn through it.”
She let you guide her onto her back, her prosthetic arm clinking faintly as she shifted. You leaned over her, one hand pressing flat beneath the swell of her chest. Warmth gathered in your palm, a pounding heat that radiated inward, weaving around her bones like a second skeleton made of sizzling lava.
Malenia inhaled sharply as the pain shuddered… and, finally, retreated.
The frown she hadn’t even realised had pinched her face since the beginning eased, relaxing as much as her muscles.
Yes, she thought with relief. This is it. That is exactly what I needed.
Whatever it was, you always provided what she needed.
Your other hand slid up to cup her cheek again, thumb sweeping along the curling line beneath her eye. You always had a lover’s touch and a healer’s devotion.
You leaned down and kissed her. Soft, at first, as though afraid that even the smallest press of your lips might worsen the pain you’d just soothed. But when she titled her chin to meet you, you deepened the kiss, slow and warm and steady, like the way embers consumes fallen petals : patiently, tenderly, with infinite purpose.
Her breath mingled with yours. The rot shrank back further, cowed by the heat, her nerves loosening under its retreat. Her chest felt lighter, less caged.
When you pulled away, her breath followed you.
“I’m here,” you said softly. “All night. As long as you need.”
“You always say that,” she whispered, reaching blindly until her left hand found your jaw, flesh meeting flesh.
“I always mean it, my heart.”
You leaned into her palm. She felt the faint rumble of warmth beneath your skin, like another heartbeat that was not quite human. A little flame seemed to flicker and crawl up her arm, gentle and smoothing the tremor of her fingers.
She curled back into you, head resting against yours, one hand pressed to the centre of your chest.
You wrapped your arms around her fully this time, enveloping her, letting that fire of yours continue spreading slowly through the places the rot gnawed most greedily.
And in the quiet dark, where sight mattered nothing and touch was everything, Malenia allowed herself to breathe. To breathe, and to drift towards sleep tucked against the only furnace the rot could not so easily devour.
This is love, she thought, the notion tender and raw.
And though she did not speak the words, you seemed to feel them all the same, for your fingers tightened in her hair, and the last sharp of pain loosened its grip under cleansing fire.
She fell asleep in your arms, her heart steady in the cradle of yours.
When Malenia woke the next morning, it was to warmth.
For a moment, she lay still beneath the sheets, waiting for the familiar and dreaded sting to announce itself.
Instead, there was only the gentle heat of the sun filtering through the high windows of her chambers, and the steady, living warmth of you beside her, breath deep and even, chest rising against her own.
Her lips curved before she could stop them.
It was a good day. She could feel it in the relieved looseness of her limbs, in the quiet calm beneath her ribs where the rot often prowled. The wind had the gentlest of teeth today, and she basked in its blessing.
She shifted carefully, testing herself. Nothing flared. Nothing ached. What was left of yesterday’s suffering was a simple echo, dulled into something manageable and distant.
These kinds of days, she refused to waste.
You stirred as she moved, a low sound slipping from your throat as your arm tightened reflexively around her. The dormant fire in you responded to her before your mind did, blooming softly, a warm greeting that curled along her spine.
She smiled wider. “My love.” Her voice was gentle as a secret.
You hummed, still in the arms of sleep.
“Today is a good day,” she said, quick and pleased.
That woke you well enough.
Your eyes opened first, and your brow softened when you felt her ease beneath your hand. “Good, you say ?”
You exhaled a slow, grateful breath, and pressed your forehead to hers. “The world feels more than kind then.”
She lifted her hand and found your face by memory, by instinct. Her fingers traced the line of your jaw, the heat that always lived just beneath your skin. She cupped your cheek, then the other with the golden one, holding you so she could guide you closer.
Your noses brushed. “You’re too far away.”
“I’m right here.” Your breath was warm against her lips.
You obliged without question.
Your foreheads touched, noses pressed together, breaths mingling in the narrow space between you. She could feel your smile before she heard it, felt it in the way your cheeks shifted beneath her palms.
“Careful,” you murmured. “You might get carried away.”
“I would never,” she said solemnly. “Unless…”
“Unless you wish to ?” You chuckled. “Is this how you plan to spend your strength today ?”
“My lady’s wish is my command.”
At that, Malenia’s smile turned into something fond, almost shy.
Outside, Elphael gleamed beneath the golden light. And, for this morning, the rot remained silent.
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧 𓌜 𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧 𓌜 𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧 𓌜 𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
a sort of angst, i’m afraid. but come on, i put a little fluff at the end, it’s fine, right ? anyway, hope you enjoyed it and happy holidays 💚
