Chapter I

Radcliff Asylum

"Ah, Mrs. Radcliff; how wonderful to see you again."

Eleanor Radcliff was a beautiful woman, with thin tendrils of copper hair hanging about her pale face. She would have been even more of a beauty had she smiled more than once in a blue moon and her eyes were not so icy. Tobias McArthur forced a polite smile as he bowed his head to Eleanor, making sure to keep his eyes locked on her chilly gray. She was very picky about eye contact.

"Likewise," she said curtly, waiting until Tobias took the seat behind his desk and finished edgily shuffling around patient files in an attempt to tidy, "I've come to see about the state of this institution, and my daughter."

Tobias winced slightly to himself and nervously tucked stray strands of his uncombed hair behind his ears. He should have known that this sudden visit was just that, no matter if she bundled it up with business and the like. As the director of the Radcliff Asylum of Psychiatry, Tobias should have known that was all Eleanor cared about.

"I've told you several times, Mrs. Radcliff," he began delicately, "The court order said that she wasn't to receive any visitors for several months. I'm sure your lawyers informed you of the procedure for . . . her situation," Tobias said, barely hiding a flinch as Eleanor's apathetic glare turned to a furious snarl.

"I want to see my daughter!" she hissed through clenched teeth, pounding a fist on Tobias's desk and knocking down a photograph of his fiancée, "It's my God given right as a mother to visit my daughter, and if you don't let me see her, I'll make sure to do everything in my power to have you fired from my institution!"

"Mrs. Radcliff, control yourself!" Tobias snapped, standing up and leering down at Eleanor with challenge in his dark eyes. He stood more than a head and a half higher than tiny Eleanor Radcliff, "Your husband may have founded this hospital, but you do not have any authority over the running of this place. That is what I am paid to do, not by you, but your husband's grant."

When Eleanor blazing gaze failed to falter, Tobias sighed and ran a hand through his brown hair; hair speckled with gray at his left temple, despite his age.

"You know very well that Alice is not permitted to have visiting hours until myself and three other doctors have found her suitable and have informed your lawyers." Tobias sat down and pulled a file towards her, hoping that Eleanor would leave. "She has been placed in this asylum because of a court conviction and a guilty plea to second and third degree murder. There are certain actions that cannot take place until she is out of solitary confinement."

"Solitary confinement? You put Alice in solitary confinement, and yet I was not notified?"

"You were informed of her incarceration." The words didn't soothe her temper.She stood with rage burning in her eyes and sickly venom pouring from her hissed voice. Had Tobias a more infantile mind, he almost would have called her a monster. "You will find her suitable for my audience, McArthur, and you will do it now."

"Is that a threat, Mrs. Radcliff?" Tobias asked coldly, crossing his fingers and resting his head on them. He might pride himself on his composure, with a temper that never seemed to ignite, but he could speak with as much poison as Eleanor when he wanted. "Because if it is, then I'm sure security would be more then happy to escort you back to your car."

Her face purpled in an unattractive rage. "This isn't over," she hissed, "I will see my daughter and there won't be a damn thing you can do to stop me." She strode from the room, slamming the door so hard behind her that a thin crack spread through the glass planes in the wood.

Tobias sighed heavily and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He always hated dealing with the Radcliff family, even more so since the death of William Radcliff and the incarceration of his stepdaughter. However, William's charity paid well and gave Tobias enough money to help pay for the elaborate wedding he was to have in neigh four months.

For now, he had to get his mind off of Eleanor and Alice and back to his work. He had several unforgiving hours before him; he had papers to sign regarding patients recently released, patients recently sentenced, patients that needed monthly reports sent to various lawyers and government officials . . . Sometimes he really hated his job, but it was better then a lot of other professions.

Tobias grabbed another file from the massive pile on her desk, opening the thin manila folder and starring at the photograph of a smiling young woman dressed in a navy school uniform, with her blonde hair plaited and her blue eyes bright, and happy.

The name printed next to the picture was 'McGee, Alice', and beneath that was the reason she'd been sentenced to the Radcliff Asylum of Psychiatry.

'Twelve counts of arson, three counts of armed burglary, fifty counts first degree murder.'

A fork of lightning illuminated the black sky above, followed by a clap of thunder that made her nearly jump out of her skin. The Princess of Renais pulled the hood of her cloak tighter around her face to avoid being splattered by hard rain droplets and sighed heavily to herself.

Eirika didn't mind constant, tiring traveling at all, but she didn't prefer traveling in rain such as this. The trail back towards the Rausten village they had just left was muddy and near impossible to take on horseback, while a good portion of her brother's army had no visibility or sense of direction in this condition. Normally, they would have simply taken refuge in a cave or thicket, but it had been raining for the greater part of a week now and the only option they had was to return to the town and wait out the storm.

Such setbacks irritated her greatly, especially when the army was so close to Darkling Woods, the Demon King, and Lyon, but there was nothing they could do about weather. Eirika knew that if they were ambushed in the wood (which she could guarantee was going to happen), being waterlogged and frozen would only give every one of their soldiers an early gravestone. She gripped the hilt of her rapier, her numb fingers feeling the familiar indents and imperfections in the sword's thin hilt and taking a weak sense of security from it.

"Just a little while longer and we'll be back in the village!" she heard Ephraim yell from his position beside her. Barely anybody heard him, thanks to the clap of thunder that instantly followed his words.

Eirika squinted through the storm above her, trying to see if the blob in the distance was another line of trees or the outline of that village. She rubbed her horse's neck, hoping to keep the poor mare calm even though her legs kept getting stuck in the mud.

"It's alright," she said softly, though her horse probably didn't hear her. She could barely hear herself in this awful weather.

When the village tavern became a solid sight and the horses were no longer standing chest-deep in mud and muck but on rain sloshed cobblestone, Eirika leapt lightly from her mare and tried to pull the inn door open, thinking in ecstasy of the warm, dry beds and meal inside. The door's lock clicked, but did not open.

"What's wrong?" It was Ephraim, looking like an angry wet dog and holding Myrrh's sleeping form in his arms. The dragon girl was bound in a cloak too large for her, but at least it kept her dry from the rain.

"The door's locked! It can't be that late, can it?"

"You've got to be kidding."

A lithe woman, dressed in white silk beneath the mottled fur of her cloak, had climbed off her bedraggled horse and was gripping an ornate golden staff tight. Her eyes were blazing in fury as she pounded the staff against the tavern door, the sound muffled by the rain and thunderclaps.

"I am Princess L'Arachel of Rausten! Open this door and let us in!" she bellowed furiously, but no lanterns were lit on the inside and nobody stirred behind the walls. Ephraim pulled her back and shook his wet head, splattering her face with water.

"It's no use; we'll have to find somewhere else to rest for the night."

"Where? This is the only inn!" L'Arachel barked impatiently, shivering in cold.

"Why don't we ask if one of the houses here will take us in, we can pay for the room, right?" Eirika asked, not wanting to hear arguing. She was too tired and too cold to hear a debate.

"I think I remember seeing a mansion at the edge of the town," Ephraim said, moving back to his horse and resting Myrrh against the stallion's neck, "They'd probably have room to accommodate us."

"Is that really the best idea, Brother?" Eirika thought back to the manor she had seen when they first arrived into town a week ago, when the maelstrom had first begun. It wasn't old or disturbing looking, built in a decadent style reminiscent of the homes in Carcino, but it didn't seem quite right in an unearthly way.

"We could either drown out here or see if the mansion will take us in." Another clap of thunder sounded, following a lightning bolt by mere seconds. It probably wasn't that safe to stay out in the open, especially since they were surrounded by thick forests with tall trees for several miles. Eirika nodded dejectedly and turned to L'Arachel.

"Tell everyone that we'll see if we can get board at the mansion. If not . . ." The turquoise haired woman chewed her lip.

"We'll try and wake up the innkeeper," her twin supplied, already on his horse and jerking the reigns towards the edge of the town, "We'll meet you there."

"Right!" Eirika watched L'Arachel hurry back towards her own horse and the rest of their small army, holding up the hem of her cloak so that it wouldn't be ruined further by the murky puddles that lingered around the stone street.

Still holding onto the hilt of her rapier, Eirika climbed back upon her stead and dug her heels into her mare's flanks and followed her twin brother towards the manse, eyeing the wooden structure apprehensively.

It was rather new in appearances, built of stone that had not yet weathered and oak wood still glossy from builders. A sign had been built in the house's front gardens, though she could only read the word 'Radcliff' on it as it swung in the heavy winds. It was their only hope for a dry night, but it wasn't her first choice for room and board.

Ephraim had to knock on the doors by kicking them a little too hard, since he still held Myrrh in his arms. Eirika shot a glance at her brother and then to the capped silver spearhead of Siegmund. The Sacred Twin was strapped in its ornate holster on his back, whilst Eirika's sword was wrapped tightly in a cloak and hung on the saddle of her horse. The respective wielders of the other Sacred Twins – the holiest of holy weapons – kept them in similar manners, for protection and respect.

To Eirika's great relief and somewhat disappointment, the door of the manor home opened and a bedraggled woman appeared, holding a candle in her hands. The wind and rain quickly extinguished the flame, but not before Eirika could see that she was maybe fifty, with graying copper hair and a bony figure, though her gray eyes were sharp and intent. Something about the woman, though, didn't feel entirely normal.

"Yes, what's the problem sir?" she asked in a formal accent, suggesting she was raised in the aristocracy. Perhaps this was her husband's country home.

"Sorry to bother you, but the inn's closed and we need a place to stay for the night," Ephraim said quickly, though politely, bowing his head slightly and sending water into the woman's face. She flinched violently.

"Laurence always closes that tavern too early . . ." she spat furiously, almost catching Eirika off guard by the sharpness in her words, "How many people are 'we'?" Her eyes snapped over at the two horses they had left in the yard.

"About thirty, with maybe twenty horses, three Pegasi and a Wyvern," supplied Eirika and when the woman chewed her bottom lip, she added hastily, "We'll pay you generously. Please, ma'am, it's only tonight."

"Of course," she said with a heavy sigh, "Come in, you're companions can lead their mounts to the stables in the back." Eirika pushed back her hood and looked at the entrance hall of Radcliff manor, taking in the various paintings and knickknacks mounted in splendor on the walls and spindly tables. The paintings, although of various artistic skills and styles, all showed one girl with blonde braids and glistening cerulean eyes that seemed to watch Eirika and Ephraim's every move.

The woman busied herself with lighting the hall, muttering indignantly about the hour even though she'd answered the summons quickly enough, while L'Arachel led the rest of their army into the hall, each of them looking relieved at being indoors. Tana wrung out her ponytail and looked intently at the matron of the house, who took one look at several of their faces and gave a small squeal of embarrassment. Her face, however, remained stoic.

"Oh, Saint Latona be praised, Princess L'Arachel and . . . you didn't mention there was royalty with you! Oh, this is no trouble at all, stay as long as you'd like, your Majesties!" she said, hastily straightening her hair and nightgown and giving a weak curtsey not of Rausten style, "You'll have to forgive me; my daughter Alice just passed away. Tuberculosis, you see . . ." Something in her words made a small part of Eirika doubt that. "I'll have Gretchen show you to your rooms . . ."

Ephraim bowed again respectfully, though it was Innes's voice that spoke next, sharp and swift as ever. "Thank you for the rooms, Madame . . .?"

"Oh, it's Madame Radcliff, Eleanor Radcliff," she said as she hurried towards the servant's quarters off the entrance hall. Eirika could not help but shiver again, trying to avoid the watching eyes of the blonde girl in the portraits.

Side Note:

First degree murder is the murder of anybody under special circumstances, such as the use of torture or especially heinous means, or means requiring great preparation, such as poison or lying in wait.

I do not own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. I own all original characters.