(ELDEN LORD! SUMMER ROSE) CHAPTER FOUR

For a while, Ruby wasn't sure why everyone remained where they were. Then the horns rang again, this time like a signal, and a deep groan sounded from the gates.

It did not swing open quickly. Instead, stone groaned as dust cascaded from seams, the sound rolling across the cliffs like distant thunder as the massive doors of the city parted inward just enough to reveal an entire city beyond.

The crowd recoiled instinctively. Some people backed away at once, while others stood frozen in place. A child began crying somewhere near the rear of the gathering before their mother hurriedly pulled them close.

Then came the sound of marching, perfectly synchronized.

Clang.

Clang.

Clang.

Metal echoed from within the city depths long before the soldiers themselves became visible. Ruby's stomach tightened. The rhythm was too perfectly synchronized to be natural. 

The first figure emerged slowly from the shadows beyond the gate.

Gold.

That was Ruby's first coherent thought.

Old, weathered gold.

The knight descended the first step in weathered gold armor engraved with intricate patterns, blackened chainmail hanging beneath battered plates scarred by age and battle. A crimson plume flowed from the crest of his helm, while a long cloak trimmed in fur dragged softly behind him against the ancient stone. He carried a spear nearly twice Ruby's height.

And he was not alone.

Rows upon rows of armored soldiers followed behind him in perfect formation, their golden armor catching the pale morning light beneath drifting ash. Tower shields bearing the symbol of a great tree rested against their backs, and longspears moved in unison like a field of steel swaying to unheard music.

The people of Patch backed away even more as the formation approached. Even Ruby took a half-step backwards beside Yang and her dad.

Nobody spoke. Nobody dared to. These people looked like something pulled from history instead of trained for modern war.

At the center of the formation walked another figure mounted atop a massive armored horse draped in gold-and-red barding. Unlike the others, this knight removed his helmet as he reached the midpoint of the staircase overlooking the gathered civilians.

He was older than Ruby expected. Gray shone through dark hair cut short against a deeply lined face weathered by years, and a long scar crossed one side of his jaw, disappearing beneath the collar of his armor.

But his eyes… his eyes carried the same intensity as the city behind him.

The mounted knight surveyed the people gathered beneath the cliffs in silence for several long moments, then he spoke. His voice carried effortlessly across the entire coastline.

"Hearken, people of this distant land." The voice was deep, carrying an accent Ruby had never heard before. "By decree of the Golden Order and under the authority of Leyndell, Royal Capital eternal, know ye this truth."

He raised one gauntleted hand toward the enormous city looming above Patch.

"The Lands Between hath converged with thine own by forces yet unknown. The veil separating realm from realm hath been broken."

Murmurs immediately rippled through the gathered crowd. Ruby exchanged a quick glance with Yang.

Realm?

The knight continued before panic could properly take hold.

"Know also this: ye stand now beneath the grace of the Erdtree."

As if responding to the declaration itself, golden light shimmered high above the city. The crowd collectively inhaled because the tree was becoming visible now behind the clouds, like a second sun.

A few people fell to their knees immediately. Most simply stared upward in terrified awe.

The mounted knight lowered his hand slowly.

"The Golden Order is the foundation upon which life, death, and order are governed. Through it came the Age of the Erdtree. Through it came grace, civilization, and continuity. Through it the world was made whole beneath divine law."

Yang leaned toward Ruby slightly.

"Please tell me I’m not the only one hearing the cult vibes," she whispered.

Ruby barely heard her. She was still staring at the knights behind the speaker, who had not moved once. They were akin to statues awaiting command.

The mounted knight's gaze swept across the gathered residents of Patch again. "Fear not. Leyndell comes not as conqueror."

That did not reassure Ruby nearly as much as he probably intended.

"The capital endureth still. Its protectors remain steadfast. Order shall be maintained amidst this convergence."

Several nearby people stumbled as the cliffs vibrated violently beneath their feet. Far above, somewhere deep within Leyndell itself, enormous bells rang again.

The knight paused briefly. For the first time since emerging, uncertainty flashed slightly across his expression. Only for an instant. Then it vanished beneath discipline.

But before the head knight could say anything else, another figure emerged.

At first, Ruby thought it was another knight, but this one was smaller, and moved differently too, almost reluctantly, as though they did not want to be here but had come anyway.

A white hood obscured their face, enough to stand out harshly against the gold around her. 

The hood was drawn low over their brow, casting their features into deep shadow, and a long cloak of matching white cascaded down their shoulders, brushing against the ancient stones as they walked. They didn't wear any visible armor, and there were no weapons that Ruby could see. Only the hood, the cloak, and a strange stillness beneath.

The figure caught up to the mounted knight just before the gates, and spoke to him.

Ruby couldn’t hear the words from where she stood. But the mounted knight stopped mid-stride, his armored shoulders stiffening beneath white-and-gold plate. And behind him, several knights exchanged uneasy glances. It was the first real crack in their perfect formation, the first sign that they were people and not machines or statues.

The figure's hands emerged from the folds of the white cloak, gesturing sharply toward the silent, frightened people still huddled together along the coastline.

The head knight straightened to his full height—which was considerable, a full head taller than the hooded figure—and responded. His voice was louder now, more defensive. Ruby caught snippets of their conversation this time.

"—must understand, my Lord, the people need to see—"

The figure interrupted with more gestures. Ruby caught the word "scaring" and the phrase "pomp and circus" and watched the mounted knight flinch as though he had been struck.

"My Lord," the knight said, his tone shifting from defensive to pleading, "you are the Elden Lord. Third consort to our Eternal Queen Marika. You earned this. You bled for this. You died for this, more times than any of us can count. The people of these lands—of all lands—must witness the authority of the Golden Order. Must understand that order has been restored. That chaos has been defeated."

The figure shook their head slowly, then they spoke again, and this time Ruby heard every word.

"Ser Gyles."

The voice was feminine and oddly tired, but beneath the softness, there was steel.

"You are not frightening them into reverence. You are frightening them into panic. Look at them." The woman gestured again toward the crowd, toward Mrs. Cinnabar still weeping into her apron, toward the Kokos twins hiding their faces against their father's chest, and toward the elderly who had stopped shaking their heads and had simply gone still with a thousand-yard stare. "These are not subjects of the Golden Order. These are fishermen, farmers, and families. They woke up this morning to find their reality altered. They do not need a procession. They do not need a declaration. They need—"

She stopped, her voice cracking.

"—they need kindness."

Ser Gyles was silent for a long moment. His dragon-skulled helm turned toward the crowd, then back toward the figure, then toward the ground at his feet.

"You are the Elden Lord," he said quietly. "We obey."

He raised his armored hand and made a sharp, chopping motion. The knights behind him immediately lifted their spears and rested them silently against their shoulders. The priests—Ruby now noticed them with their red-and-gold robes—stopped their chanting mid-word, the sound cutting off so abruptly Ruby felt it like a physical absence. The incense—another thing Ruby just noticed—continued to drift into the air, but the performance, the overwhelming, crushing display of power, simply… stopped.

The woman stepped past Ser Gyles, walked across Patch's coastline, her cloak trailing behind her, and the hood still hiding her face. She stopped some feet away from where Ruby stood with Yang and her dad.

"Everything Ser Gyles told you is true," the woman said, addressing the crowd directly now, and her voice carried without needing to boom. A skill Ruby recognized, something her own teachers at Signal had called presence. "The worlds you know and the world we know… have collided. We do not yet fully understand why, but the veil that separated your world from ours has lifted, and it will not be lowered again."

The crowd stirred at her words, but Ruby was more focused on how strangely familiar it felt. And warm too.

"But we mean you no harm." The woman’s voice softened further, almost breaking on the next words. "We truly mean you no harm. And it isn't because the Golden Order commands it. Or because the Erdtree demands it. But because—" she paused and took a breath that Ruby could see trembling through her shoulders. "Because this is my home."

Ruby frowned.

Home?

Beside her, her dad suddenly went rigid.

Yang noticed it instantly.

"…Dad?"

Ruby found herself stepping forward before either of her family could stop her.

"This is our home," she said, her voice sharper than she intended and louder than she meant. "And you haven't answered the only question that matters."

Yang reached for her arm. "Ruby—"

Her dad moved to stand beside them, his hand hovering near his hip where a weapon might have been if he had thought to bring one. "Sweetheart, maybe we should—"

"No." Ruby shook them both off, her silver eyes fixed on the white-hooded figure. Her voice cracked louder than intended, yet it still caused the hooded figure to freeze.

Ruby barely noticed the reaction.

"You show up with—with this—" she gestured wildly toward the ancient city towering overhead "—and start talking about worlds colliding and golden orders and Elden Lords and now you're acting like you belong here?!"

The figure’s shoulders lowered slightly, and the crowd went silent.

"Ruby," Yang hissed, "maybe don't yell at the army—"

"No, because what does that even mean?!"

The figure stared at her silently, then at Yang, and finally at her dad. Then, a small sound escaped the woman. Her hands, visible now as they emerged from the cloak, were trembling. 

"…You've grown up so fast," the figure whispered.

Ruby frowned. "What?"

The woman took a step closer. Then another. Her head was pitched forward slightly, as though she was looking at Ruby—really looking—for the first time.

"All of you," the woman continued, their voice barely audible now. "You've changed so fast.I—" A choked sound escaped the hood, part laughter, part sob, and part something in between that Ruby had never heard before. "Has it truly been so long? For me, it felt like—" she stopped and shook their head. "No. No, that doesn't matter now. What matters is—"

The woman’s hands rose to the edges of her hood, and stilled there. Then, slowly, almost agonizingly slowly, she began to push it back.

Ruby's hand found Yang's, Yang's hand found Ruby's, and she heard her dad’s sharp intake of breath.

The hood fell, and Ruby forgot how to breathe.

The face beneath looked older than the photographs. Lines were etched around the eyes, her cheekbones were hollowed, and her hair that had once been dark was now streaked with gray. But the eyes—those warm, kind, silver eyes that had looked down at Ruby every night before bed, that had smiled at her across breakfast tables and quiet evenings spent watching the stars rise over Patch—

"Mom?" The word left Ruby's mouth without much thought. Without anything except the raw, primal recognition of a child seeing something she had thought lost forever.

Her dad made a sound Ruby had never heard from him before, and he took a hesitant step forward. 

"Summer?" His voice cracked on the name.

Yang's grip on Ruby's hand tightened until it was almost painful. "No," Yang whispered. "No, that's not—she died. She died, Ruby, we couldn't—"

Summer Rose stood before them, tears streaming down her cheeks, and her hands still raised as though reaching for something just out of reach.

"It's me," she said. "It's me. I'm—" she laughed wetly. "After everything… I’m home."

Ruby's legs moved without her permission. 

She ran across the distance and crashed into her mother with enough force to stagger them both. Her arms wrapped around Summer's shoulders, her face pressed into the hollow of Summer's neck, and she breathed in her scent deeply.

Yang hit them a second later with enough force to nearly knock all three of them down, and her dad followed an instant afterward, arms wrapping around them all so tightly it almost hurt.

Nobody cared that they were crying. They held each other like letting go might make it all disappear again.

And against the shoulders of the family she thought she might never see again, the Elden Lord whispered softly:

"…I'm home."