"My Cordelia… My sweet Cory." He caressed the woman's cheek gently, the sigil on the back of his hand pulsing with profane energy. "You're supposed to be happy, my love. This is our wedding day, after all."
The pegasus knight shook her head, one hand rising to bat his away. "You are not Robin." She hissed, eyes flashing with anger. "I will have only one husband, and you stole him from me. You're nothing but a monster wearing his form!" She brought her hand back to strike him, but a firm grip on her wrist ended that plan.
He nuzzled her neck affectionately, lips trailing up to hers as he murmured, "Please, my Cory, open your mind to me. I will give you all you could ever desire, all that would be forever out of reach for a mere mortal. A world without war, of everlasting serenity, with me as its god and you as my queen. It will be a world where our bloodline can thrive without fear of annihilation."
Cordelia's eyes flickered with a mixture of hate and sorrow as her suitor ensnared her in an affectionate embrace and finally shut as she succumbed to his kiss, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
Robin awoke with a start, a warm, wet sensation on the fingers of his right hand and a pain on the back of his left. Someone was holding his arm in a vice grip, and in the haze of the dream fading from his mind he was dimly aware of a voice calling to him.
"…Robin!" The sound of his name cut through the lingering panic and drew his attention to the woman beside him, her usually gentle hands immobilizing his arm. Her deep red eyes were locked onto his as she moved a bit closer with an expression of deep concern. "Thank the gods I was able to wake you. I feared I wouldn't be able to before you did even more damage."
He was confused by her words until he remembered the pain and wetness on his hands. What he saw when he looked down at them shocked him – the sigil on the back of his left hand was defaced with bloody gouges, the source of which was evident by the still-fresh blood coating his right fingers and dripping down his wrist. "How did I not wake up from this?" He muttered, more to himself than to Cordelia as she released his arm and embraced him tightly.
"I don't know. I woke to you crying out in your sleep, and it took a moment before I saw you clawing at the mark on your hand. Despite my training, it took all my strength to restrain you from injuring yourself further. What is it you saw in your dreams to evoke such a reaction?" Her tone was gentle and comforting, but the tactician could detect a subtle undercurrent of fear in her voice.
Robin shook his head regretfully. It wouldn't do to tell her now, not after the war with Plegia had just ended and they were still newlyweds. This was meant to be a time of rest and recovery while Ylisse rebuilt after Gangrel's fall and the void left by Exalt Emmeryn's passing slowly healed. He couldn't worry her now. "Just… a nightmare." He murmured, settling on a half-truth to placate her. Many of their comrades were also recovering from the stress of the war, so it wouldn't sound so far-fetched.
Cordelia, of course, wasn't fooled by his omission. "You're keeping something from me, Robin. I may not be the shrewdest observer of people, not like Stahl, but even I know that a normal nightmare wouldn't bring you to tear yourself apart in your sleep like this. Please don't hide this from me, my love; we swore to care for one another, in sickness and in health, for the rest of our lives."
The pleading look in his wife's eyes pierced straight to his soul, forcing him to avert his gaze. "I don't want to worry you. The war is over, Ylisse is finally free of the Plegian threat. This is no time to foster more fear." He rummaged through the bedside table for the bandages the couple kept there, winding them tightly around his injured hand before wiping the blood from his fingers on a cloth usually meant for cleaning more… intimate substances. Throughout the process, he was acutely aware of Cordelia watching him.
"It worries me more to know that something torments you without any idea of how to alleviate it. We're connected now, and I will not sit idly by while those I care for are suffering." Though she spoke softly, the hint of steel behind her words told Robin that she would brook no argument in this case. It was a tone she only used when she was deadly serious.
He sighed deeply, eyes closing for just a moment before the vision of his dream flashing behind his eyelids forced them open once more. "I dreamed of you and… another. Someone with this same mark on his left hand as me, whose eyes I looked through without any control. He spoke of your wedding day, convinced that you would be his bride despite your objections. You accused him of taking me from you, but he only said that he would bring peace to the world, where he would be a god and you his queen. Through his eyes, I watched him take you in his arms and kiss you as I do, and the last thing I saw was your single tear before you woke me." His hands balled into fists, the gouges he'd inflicted throbbing with the action as he fell into silence for a few moments. When he spoke again, his voice held a raw pain as he rasped, "I think it was me, but at the same time not. Something wearing my form, but that you knew was not me."
Cordelia said nothing until she was settled close behind him with her arms draped around his neck, then whispered, "Don't fear our separation. Wherever life takes us, whether it be to the heart of the Plegian desert, the bitterest reaches of Regna Ferox, or across the trackless seas, I will be forever at your side. This is the oath we swore to one another, remember?" Her lips ghosted ever so lightly over his ear as he relaxed slightly in her embrace.
"Yes… I do remember." Robin took a deep breath, his usual strength returning to his voice. "I could never forget. Thank you, Cory – I promise you will see no more weakness like this from me."
"Even the greatest of men fear for those they love. It's what separates us from monsters like the Mad King; we fight for the ones close to us, and in doing so our strength is far greater than those who fight only for themselves. Now sleep, my love, and know that I am always beside you."
The two years immediately following the Second Ylisse-Plegia War were a time of happiness for the people and the Shepherds alike. In the wake of the royal wedding between Prince Chrom – he had declined the title of Exalt, seeing as the mourning period for his late sister was still ongoing when he took the throne – and Queen Sumia, many of their comrades followed suit. Princess Lissa and the Feroxi blademaster Lon'qu, Maribelle and Libra, Sully and Donnel… the period was nicknamed the 'Season of Blooming Love' by the more poetic individuals in the capital. But the peace was not to last.
Robin had accompanied Chrom to meet with the Feroxi khans on the matter of the incoming Valmese invasion, and from the intelligence provided by the most unlikely source they could've imagined began preparing a strategy to defend the landing site at Port Ferox. He had initially intended to request Cordelia stay in Ylisstol to defend the newborn princess, but she had shut the idea down before he could even bring it up. "If the Valmese are as strong and numerous as Virion and Cherche report, you'll need the best of the best." She'd stated so calmly, and he abandoned any intention of convincing her.
It turned out that her reasoning was sound; the battle at Port Ferox was fiercer than any the Shepherds had faced to date. Even Gangrel's unreasonably devoted personal guard paled in comparison to the highly trained and strictly disciplined Valmese vanguard, and even with the Feroxi army's support it was a bitter fight. Once the invaders had fallen, an emergency war council was convened between Chrom, Robin and the khans, and despite the former's vociferous objections it was determined that assistance from Plegia would be necessary to avoid a full-scale invasion by Valm.
"What do you think of this, Robin?" Cordelia asked as she watched her husband gaze out the window of the quarters they shared, toward their neighbor's distant deserts.
It was a moment before he responded, voice carefully measured as he answered, "I think we have little choice. Ylisse has no warships, as is to be expected; maintaining an active war fleet would have flown in the face of the late Exalt's pacifistic tendencies, and constructing one would not only require drafting a staggering amount of troops and shipwrights but also time we lack. Given the speed with which the Valmese vanguard landed on Ferox's shores, the full invasion force would have ample time to set up a supply chain in occupied territory before we could finish the fleet. Ferox is in a similar position, albeit for different reasons – they have even less in the way of a maritime tradition than Ylisse does, and the methods required for effective naval combat are foreign to the vast majority of Feroxi troops. Not only would they have less time to construct a fleet, being the initial target of the Valmese invasion, but even were it possible they would still have to train a dedicated force of sailors and marines, which would likely take even longer than building the ships would. I'm wary of dealing with Plegia, but they're the lesser of two evils now that Gangrel is gone."
"And you intend to accompany Lord Chrom to meet with their new king?" She knew the answer before the words had even left her lips, but it was a question she felt the need to ask regardless.
Robin nodded. "Chrom is a natural leader of men, as every Shepherd can attest to, but he lacks the more subtle touch required for diplomacy. We only have one chance at this; if we present our request to Plegia and are rebuffed, then any hope of stopping Valm before they make landfall is gone. I need to do all I can to make this go smoothly."
Cordelia folded her hands in her lap and sat in silence for a minute, then two. She knew he wasn't overstating the importance of his task, but it didn't mean she was pleased with it, especially as Chrom had specifically assigned her to stay in Ylisstol to continue training new pegasus knights with Sumia. There was only one wing at full manpower after the last war, true, but not being able to see to her beloved husband's safety still ate at her.
Finally she gave him a look filled with determination and stated, "Very well. Though I regret that my assignment prevents me from accompanying you, I won't waste this last night we have together before you set off to Carrion Isle." She leaned back on the bed, her white dress draped around her as she smiled impishly at him. "Come, my love. Let's enjoy ourselves…"