Authors note: A concept that popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone. Set several years after the end of Awakening. As usual I own nothing.

It was a rare occasion and one that needed to be used to its fullest. Lucina had declared this with, what she hoped, was a look of authority. Though younger both Owain and Brady were old enough to know that the year or two more the girl had would give her the advantage if they disagreed on the matter and it were to be decided by a fight and so they nodded their agreement.

The occasion was nothing more than all three had no chores to be done and had finished their lessons at the same time so they could actually play as a group, despite the occasional arguments they did get along after all. That and there was a noticeable lack of children in the castle that were of playable age. Normally such an occasion would warrant a trip to the gardens but as it had been raining for the past few days the ground would be muddy which in turn, despite their best efforts, would make their persons muddy which would result in their nannies getting angry and they would tell their mothers who would be angry and they would than tell their fathers who wouldn't be angry but disappointed, or so they would say, and the three children would prefer to avoid the whole thing if possible.

So instead they went exploring the castle, after all it was a big place ("of course it is, it's a castle dummy" Lucina had chided Owain when he had once made the observation, ignoring the fact that she herself had once proudly declared this discovery to anyone who would listen) and there was much of it that they had not explored yet.

So agreed the trio set off, heading for the old wing of the castle where there was the most to be discovered. They had briefly considering investigating the lower levels but ultimately decided not to as their parents had made it adamantly clear that they are not to do so and their decision had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it was very, very dark down there. So they made their way through the corridors, weaving in and out of the columns in the hall and were briefly waylaid by Billy the guard who, when asked, agreed to become Gob the mountain troll and challenged the brave adventurers to mortal combat before being vanquished after an epic struggle cut tragically short by the fact that Billy had to return to duty.

Flush with excitement after the battle they trio took to (toy) sword fighting but had to stop when Brady was struck hard in the hand and started to cry. Lucina immediately took to apologizing to the younger boy as Owain stood on the lookout in case an adult should show up to investigate which would inevitably result in the trio getting in trouble. Brady stopped soon enough though he kept sucking on his hurt hand while looking miserable. Owain turned around and, with dramatic flare, began a story of how, after beating Billy, that is to say Gob the troll, the three brave adventurers had been ambushed by brigands and in the vicious struggle that followed Brady had been dealt a grievous injury while bravely facing two of the brigands at once.

Lucina quickly picked up the tale, explaining how now they had make a quick escape before any more brigands would come and they would than tend his wound, Brady smiled at that and agreed. The trio set off down the corridor, that is to say the dark and murky forests, before coming across a small door. With a push Lucina was pleased to discover that it was open and the three walked in cautiously. After a quick look around Lucina declared that they had found a safe spot for their camp, though the three soon forgot about their story as they realised, with some excitement, that they had stumbled upon a room they had never been in before.

It was a messy room with crates everywhere and the walls were lined with shelves sagging under the burden of, shapes wrapped in greased cloth that was no doubt meant to protect whatever was stored here. As if by silent agreement the three scattered, each looking around the area for something they thought interesting. Lucina stopped in front of a rack and was in the process of wondering whether to pull down the long shapes and check whether there were swords hidden under the cloth when movement at the edge of her vision made her turn.

She gave a shriek and fell on her butt in surprise at the leering face staring at her, a face that brought to mind images from nightmares and the scarier stories that she sometimes heard from the less serious guards as they told her of the great wars her parents had fought in. All that was irrelevant as the face was only a short distance from her and would, no doubt, soon attack. It didn't and Lucina got a chance to look at the face more closely and saw it was a mask, and the person behind the mask was laughing.

- 'Not funny Owain.'

She huffed as she pushed herself off the floor. Still laughing her cousin managed to cough out that he disagreed when Brady showed up, looking worried. That passed quickly however as he saw that mask and ran forward with gleaming eyes to investigate the treasure. It was an ugly thing, made of some dark metal and crafted to look like a snarling face.

- 'Do you think it's a rising mask?'

- 'It's "risen" you doofus.'

Owain stuck his tongue at his cousin but a potential fight was stopped by Brady's question.

- 'Where did you find it? Maybe there are more stuff like it around?'

Owain's eyes lit up at the thought of such undiscovered treasures lying around and quickly led the way to where the mask had been found. It was a shelf like many and like most it was heavy with object wrapped in greased cloth, only some of them had already been unwrapped by an enterprising Owain. The three quickly began going through the rest, most being dismissed as boring but some of the discoveries made the children gasp with excitement before they began animated discussions about what it was and how it ended up in an old room.

It was a fair few moments later that Brady looked up and realized that Lucina was no longer with them. Looking around and not seeing her he called out.

- 'Lucina?'

- 'Over here!'

The boys found her standing in front of a large, solid looking chest. Lucina had a thoughtful expression on her face, as she looked it over.

'What are you doing?'

Lucina stood up straight and, with an expression as if she were dealing with children, she replied.

- 'Don't you think that if there was something here they really wanted to keep safe they wouldn't have left them on the shelves but put into a big chest like this one?'

The boys nodded in agreement and the three took to opening the chest, or tried to, as the lid did not move. Realizing that the lid was kept in place with a series of bolts the three pulled them free, though not without difficulty and once again tried to lift the lid. Slowly and with effort the three managed to pry the lid open and it fell back with a audible bang. The three sat for a moment getting their breath back before they began investigating the chests contents.

The chest was filled with greased cloth bundles that looked no different from the ones elsewhere in the room, to the children's disappointment, but that passed quickly enough as they began to unwrap the cloth. The first to give an excited gasp was Owain and as the other two turned to see what had caused it they too became excited. In the boys hands, freed from its cover, sat a helm much like the one some of the knights they would see wear. The single slit in the helmet almost seemed to stare back at the children as they silently looked at the helmet before, with a silent glance at one another, the three began unwrapping more of the chests contents.

Sure enough they soon pulled out more of the armour, greaves and gauntlets were soon discovered followed by a bascinet with its mail aventail. They also found lots of padding and mail as well as a brigandine and leather vambraces. The children's excitement only grew when they discovered that there was more in the chest and pulled out a lengthy bundle that revealed a fine arming sword, and another a mace. The next bundle, however, failed to cause much excitement at its unwrapping.

- 'It's just a book.'

Owain commented, his nose scrunching up in disappointment as he flicked the pages. Lucina, who had been looking over the boys shoulder, now yanked the book from his grip.

- 'It's not a book, it's a journal!'

- 'What's the difference?'

- 'The difference is that it's like a diary.'

Lucina answered with a voice that was meant to express her mental superiority over the boys, conveniently forgetting that she had, until recently, been likewise oblivious to the difference. Suddenly a thought came to her that she shared, the girls voice betraying her excitement.

- 'Maybe it belonged to whomever the chest belonged to? Maybe we can find out who it was?'

The three took to deciphering the scribbles in the journal only to give up soon after. Whoever had written it was not a neat writer and obviously had never had a lesson with father Tobias who was teaching the children their letters and was very fussy about neatness and clear writing. They did however study the sketches in greater detail as they found them fascinating, though not always obvious as to what they were supposed to be. Most of them were some strange doodles involving lots of lines and blokes along with arrows that seemed to indicate movement, others looked like landscapes. There were sketches of arms and armour as well as people, most often very generic shapes in what the children recognized as battle formations, but occasionally they found more precise sketches that, though not very good, did bear some resemblance to people they knew.

- 'Is that father?'

Lucina asked no one in particular as she pointed to one of the sketches.

- 'Maybe. I mean that does look like Falchion.'

- 'This one looks a bit like mother.'

- 'Is that a dragon?'

The three were so busy looking through the journal that they did not hear the footsteps approaching.

- 'What are you doing here?'

The three jumped as if burnt at the words, Lucina losing grip of the journal and it sailed through the air. Chrom, for it was him that had asked them the question was standing with crossed arms and an "I am not happy with you" look on his face. His expression changed to one of confusion and than alarm when he realised what it was the children had been holding and what was now flying in the air. Too late to catch the journal he could only watch it hit a crate and witness the old binding break, scattering hundreds of yellowed pages everywhere.

For a moment there was silence before Chrom's face shifted from worry to anger as he turned on the children.

- 'Look what you've done! What were you thinking going through something that is not yours?'

The children had, of course, seen Chrom upset as one might imagine but none of them could honestly say that they had seen him angry until now. The combination of being surprised doing something the should not have been doing, the realization that they ruined something that had been important as well as they fact that she had made her father very angry proved too much for Lucina and she began to cry, quickly followed by the likewise frightened boys. Their tears made Chrom stop as his anger instantaneously faded replaced by awkwardness as he instinctively sought to comfort the children. The sound of more steps approaching made him pause though.

- 'Chrom? What's going on? Whose crying?'

Lissa asked from the doorway and seeing Owain bawling she was quickly with him, Maribelle fast behind her to deal with Brady and Lucina. A quick look at the open chest, the scattered contents and at Chrom who had knelt and was slowly collecting the pages that littered the room told her what had happened.

- 'Could you take the children and calm them down? I'll clean up here.'

Chrom said, his voice tired. The two girls nodded and took their children away. Alone the Exalt sighed and began collecting everything that had been moved with care.

It was several minutes before they did calm down. Heads resting on their mother's lap the two now lay quietly before Lucina hesitantly asked.

- 'Mother?'

- 'Yes?'

- 'Father is angry with us.'

Maribelle continued stroking her children's heads as she answered.

- 'He's not angry, more upset.'

- 'But we broke that book and he was really angry.'

Maribelle sighed.

- 'He seemed angry because he was very upset. That chest contains things that belonged to a friend of your fathers.'

There was a moment's silence before hesitantly Brady spoke up.

- 'Maybe we could fix it? The journal I mean.'

He offered, looking up at his mother. Maribelle could not help the smile that appeared on her face.

- 'Perhaps. We should check tomorrow. But first you two should probably apologize to your father about it.'

The two nodded their agreement and for a moment they sank into silence soaking in the quiet moment with their mother.

- 'Mother?'

- 'Yes Lucina?'

- 'Fathers friend, was he killed in the wars?'

Maribelle paused at the question. The silence could not have lasted long but Lucina noticed it all the same.

- 'I'm sorry.'

- 'No, you don't have to apologize. You are right; he did disappear at the end of the war. Your father, we all were fond of him so his passing has been noticeable.'

Another silence fell, the children thinking about what they had been told while Maribelle's thoughts went back all those years to distant lands and military campaigns.

- 'Mother?'

- 'Yes dear?'

- 'This friend of fathers… who was he?'

Maribelle did not reply immediately, looking down on her children as she considered how to best answer the question before settling on the truth.

- 'It is a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?'

The two nodded, their mother sighing and after collecting her thoughts she began.

- 'This story starts in a field…'