Elden Ring: A Sword's Purpose

Maureen awoke tired and sore. The norm for as long as she could remember. These days it didn't feel so bad.

Instead of the rot keeping her up, it was all the late-night reading that kept her from a good night's sleep. As for the soreness, well, she could have done without that, but at least it was due to harmless exercise rather than a sickness or the everyday struggle required to survive back in Caelid.

That place was not missed.

Maureen rose up, the cold air of the cave hitting her as she abandoned warm furs. The others were sound asleep as usual, curled up in their own bedding. Or spread across in Amy's case. How that girl managed to throw her limbs about so haphazardly and stay asleep was not something she would ever understand.

Then there was Jin.

"Good morning, Jin." Maureen whispered as she joined him at the tunnel that led into the chamber. Millicent had been disappointed but Maureen was happy he chose to spend the nights next to the entrance rather than sleeping in the bed they prepared for him.

Nothing would get past him.

As she got to work taking down the ropes of bone, their hollow rattles echoing throughout the chamber, no response came. Not a grunt. Not a nod. Not a word.

She glanced his way. Jin sat cross legged as usual but something was off. He was almost slumped, arms loosely crossed in front of his chest and head down rather than up.

"Jin?" She called out. Again, no response. "Mister Jin?" Still nothing.

She kneeled at his side, peeking up at his face. His eyes were closed and steady breaths left him.

"What's wrong?" Mary asked through a yawn, having walked up at some point.

"He's…asleep." Such a simple thing but it sounded so, so…so weird to say about him.

"Really?" That woke Mary right up and dropped down in front of him, jabbing his face several times with a finger. "Huh…I didn't think he needed sleep." Good to know she wasn't alone in thinking that.

"What should we do?"

"…let him sleep." Mary decided after a brief silence. "We're not babies. We don't need him watching us do every little thing." Mary framed it roughly but Maureen could tell she didn't really mean it that way. After everything he did, they weren't going to do something like interrupt his sudden slumber.

She and Mary got to work removing the rest of the bones, the others soon waking. Amy tried to wake Jin but they pulled the whining girl away while Millicent placed some furs on him.

While Jin caught up on sleep they had their own day to live out.

…

Sharp thuds filled the air. Polyanna's giggles mixed with Amy's laughs. Winds blew above, carrying the sounds of distant animals.

Maureen glanced up from her book. With morning exercises over they all split off to do their own thing. Mary kept training, striking one of the wooden posts set up. Amy ran around with Polyanna on her back, Millicent watching over them.

And all of it was being done behind the safety of walls. Tall logs, the tips sharpened into spikes, surrounded a great portion of the forest around their home in a sort of semi-circle.

It was like their own little world.

With a smile, Maureen returned to her pages though her reading didn't last long. A shadow appeared over her, blocking out the sun's light.

 "What's so interesting about that book?" Mary asked, a wooden sword dropped across a shoulder and another held in her other hand.

"W-What?" Mauren said, taken aback by the sudden interest. Mary didn't care for reading. Beyond their first few lessons, all of which covered nothing more than the basics, she never tried to do any on her own to practice. Even Amy, who on the best of days only paid attention for an hour at most, showed more interest.

Mary kneeled down, grabbed the top of the book's spine and flipped it over, slowly trudging through a page. "You're already good with words and stuff. Why look at this thing all day?"

"It talks about interesting things. Like knights, nobles and witches."

Mary hummed, obviously disinterested. "What's the point in reading about them? We're sick, remember?" She said. "You saw what the old man had to do just to get us out of Caelid. Because of this stupid rot everyone is just going to try and kill us. You should be preparing to fight them not reading some old stories about those people."

Maureen stayed silent. That was exactly the reason she enjoyed reading so much; when she had this book open she didn't have to worry about her disease, the dangers out in the world, or anything else. All that mattered was the page and its contents, both sweeping her worlds away from reality.

Mary wouldn't understand that.

"Come on." Mary said, the wooden sword in her other hand tossed beside Maureen. "Train with me."

Fighting off a frown, Maureen did as she was told, book set aside and sword picked up as she joined Mary at the training posts.

Mary might not understand that, but she always knew what was best for them. If she said to train then that's what Maureen was going to do no matter how much she'd rather be reading.

…

Hair still damp from a bath, Maureen dropped on the grouping of furs that was her bed with a groan. Everything hurt. Just raising her arms slightly was enough for soreness to flare up and deter her from going any further.

She didn't understand how the others did it.

Mary could swing at those posts all day and that was after taking care of all the big chores, like rolling in barrels of fresh water or helping Jin butcher animals. Amy could do the same, but she'd always been a ball of energy; being given a sword to play around with was just another way for her to use all the energy. Even Millicent could keep at it for hours at a time, day after day, without complaint.

"You okay?" Maureen turned her head and found Millicent taking a seat beside her. Jin had woken up at some point and taken the crying Polyanna off her hands. All of them had taken a shine to him, even Mary in her own way, but that went double for the youngest of them. She always seemed to start crying whenever he was gone for too long.

"Just tired." Maureen said, returning to staring straight up at the stone above.

"You know…you know you don't have to train with Mary right?" Millicent whispered. "You should just tell her you don't want to. Don't you want to read your book instead?"

"Its not about what I want to do." It was about what they needed to do. What they needed to prepare for. "I'm fine, so go get some sleep."

Millicent got up and there was some shuffling around but she didn't go to her own bed, sitting back down on Maureen's. "What page were you on? I'll read to you."

Maureen glanced Millicent's way. They all watched for each other for as long as they could remember but she didn't know where Millicent learned to be so nice. Her attention was always on someone else and never herself, quick to do what she could for them or carry out the chores no one else wanted.

There was no point in trying to shoo her off.

Throwing out the page number -another thing Jin was teaching them- Maureen closed her eyes and listened to Millicent. She wished she could've been reading herself but this wasn't so bad.