"What are you?" Noraan asked, incredulous. In their wake lay three Lothric knights, and their many allies, pale, fragile things splayed in slack postures like abandoned marionettes; all had been vanquished with impossible ease and speed, Or'do a honeyed blur like the golden edge of Death's swinging scythe.
"An Ashen, same as you." Or'do smiled, leaning on the coiled sword and gesturing to its with his free hand. "Going to light this, or shall I?"
"You can? I thought phantoms were unable."
"Indeed they are; the question was of course moot."
Shaking his head, Noraan waved Or'do aside, and ignited the Bonfire. "Then why ask?"
"To shake you from your reverie of course! Can't have you bumbling around slack jawed too often." Or'do wagged a chastising finger to punctuate his words.
"You are a strange one, Or'do." Noraan laughed softly as he spoke, bewildered as much as amused.He glanced up, toward the pair of dragons looming before an immense portcullis. "Yet I am glad of your aid."
"Surely you do not need it. How many worlds have you Linked?"
"Too many." Noraan admitted. "Yet your power surpasses mine in ways I thought impossible. I am brimming with souls, the Keeper is unable to grant me further nourishment from them, for my power is as immense as ever it can be. How then, are you so much stronger?"
"Because you fight without reason, without conviction. The fire in your heart has long since turned cold and frail, for not even the Flame can sustain us when our souls wander and our purpose dims."
"How can you be this way?" Desperation clawed at Noraan's voice. "How can you possibly stride on when no matter the battle's outcome, nothing will change?!"
"Because I have designed my own reasons. I have forsaken the Flame, at least in that I defy its demands. I stride on with head held high because I refuse to let this world bow it." Or'do leaned closer, searching Noraan's eyes with his own. "Find your purpose, Noraan. Not the Flames, but your own. Once you know what it means not to live, but to be alive, you will find the same strength I have, for it is not in strength of body that we differ, but in soul. And that, is the greatest strength of all."
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