Notes: I don't trust clergy.
Stats: 500 words for TharjaLibra. Adored their relationship, and their ending is so cute. Even if blonde Noire doesn't convince me...
Tharja knew her husband still harbored some darkness within his heart. Libra just hid it better now, but sometimes, as they worked with the children that lived at their orphanage, his eyes would lose their brightness. Whenever their time traveling Noire visited, he would excessively dote on her, as if trying to atone for something he hadn't even done himself. And he seemed not to trust himself to turn out good for parenting, so he discreetly avoided her, reminding her lust was a sin if she asked.
Though she did less hexes now, for everyone's safety in these times of peace, she was tempted to pick it up again. A couple well-cast spells would open up his heart completely to her, and his mind too, for the root cause of this distance. But she wondered if that would make him distrust her even more, once she was done, and that stayed her hand.
"I thought he didn't believe in fate anymore," her daughter confessed one day, having brought some donations from places far away.
"I hear childhood abuse is hard to overcome," Tharja replied, pointedly looking at Noire. "Have any ideas, yourself?"
"Well... Things are not the same, I wouldn't know. And I have another understanding of things, as well. I'd probably not have survived the Risen had you not cursed me time and again."
"You think curses made you stronger?"
"They do have their downsides..." No joke. "And you two lead a great life together. This place is full of happiness and bright smiles; father surely won't take long to notice. The orphanage had a hard time starting up, but things have to get better. He was never consumed by darkness during my childhood. I trust everything will be solved soon." She had so much faith, she should have become a cleric herself.
But Tharja tried to pick up those good vibes, and once her daughter's husband came for her to return to their traveling, she locked away all the tools she had gathered to try to fix Libra's heart. She could wait, believe that Noire's memories were going to become true also for this timeline... She would wait.
Yet things took a turn for the worse, and the children they cared for started falling extremely sick. She could see the stress it caused in her husband; he couldn't heal them, this was not a normal illness.
"Could be a curse," she whispered to him one night.
"How...?" He looked so haunted by something.
"Not all curses need to be cast consciously. No one would aim for orphaned children. And... Ugh!"
Tharja collapsed in the middle of their room, feeling immense pain paralyze her body. Libra knelt and cradled her in his arms, horrified.
"You need to stop thinking about your past," she told him weakly. "You would have been a wonderful dark mage... but that's not right." She passed him the key to open her cabinet before she fainted, trusting he would find the way on his own.