Starlight
Part One: The Stars In Their Courses
I do not own Fire Emblem or any of its characters.
Author's Note: This is a three-part series of short stories around the common theme of celestial mechanics; the series as a whole was sparked by a fill I did for the gen portion of the "emblanon" comm on Livejournal in February 2011. That fill itself is the third part of the series, but while I was at it, the two "prequel" parts started percolating in my head. The series stalled out, though, and it wasn't until penandpaper71 requested a drabble for the theme of "starlight" that I got back in gear again. Thanks, penandpaper71! :D
Year 604
Holy ground. The earth itself made sacrosanct by some force beyond human understanding. He could sense that force through the leather of his boots with each footstep. He could sense it with each breath of air, could feel it in a tingling that ran down his spine, like a close brush with thunder magic.
No wonder men who deemed themselves brave entered Raman Temple with weapons drawn, only to leave empty-handed and screaming. And the terror they screamed of, the goddess who scoured the Fane of Raman with holy fire... well, he'd be coming up against that soon enough.
Marth glanced at Merric, who had a Thoron tome pressed to his chest with both hands. That wasn't odd in itself, not with thieves and outlaws lurking throughout the temple complex. But Merric's face seemed abnormally pale, and his lips were pressed together in a mirthless line.
"Look up, sire," said Merric, his voice strained.
Marth did so, tipping his head back to stare up into the great dome of the temple, the model for the marble domes of Pales and the gilded minarets of Khadein. It was as grand and vast as the largest domes in the royal capital, with a feeling of light, of space, as though its mosaic splendor encased an entire world. A world of great heroes and even greater beasts- monsters, even- that made the heavens their battleground.
He recognized the patterns above them as the beasts of the zodiac- the lion, the bull, the great desert scorpion- but something seemed... odd... about the gilded stars that adorned each creature.
"Merric, does something seem strange about the constellations to you?"
"The stars aren't all in the right places," said Merric. "But they've changed since this place was built, sire. The stars move..."
Moved across the heavens at a pace so glacial no human would live to even see the change. But for the dragons, for whom a century was but a year, and a millennium a decade...
"How long has it been since the constellations were this way, Merric?"
"I don't know..." Merric's eyes narrowed to slits of green as he thought it over. "Maybe five thousand years?"
Five thousand years, from that moment to this.
Marth looked down at the floor, at his own worn boots and the flickering shadows that torchlight cast upon the marble, and wondered, not for the first time, at the unparalleled madness of their mission.
"Come on, Merric. Chin up- the goddess of the Fane is waiting."
And so they passed with hurried steps beneath the reflection of a vanished sky, as a meteor passes from darkness to darkness.
End Part One