"Robin! Robin!"
Without sparing a glance behind for the enemy he had just felled, Chrom sprinted to where his friend lay motionless in the grass, his white hair matted with blood. With a gesture that was rough in its haste and worry, the Exalt turned his tactician over onto his back. Already Libra, the nearest healer, was running over to where the two of them were. Chrom felt sick. In all the years he and Robin had fought together, he had seen his friend gravely injured, yes, but never had he seen him as still and limp as he was now in Chrom's arms.
"Open your eyes, Robin, open your eyes! You can't die on us here!" Chrom shouted, shaking the man. "You've fought so many battles with us, you've faced Grima, you defeated Grima himself, you are NOT going to die here just because some cowardly ruffian attacked us from behind!"
Chrom thought he saw Robin's lips move slightly just as Libra reached them and the green-gold magic from his staff enveloped the injured man, hiding him from Chrom's sight.
Morgan wept softly by herself, huddled in one corner of her tent. So absorbed was the young lady in her grief that she failed to hear the soft swish of the tent flap opening.
"Morgan," said Robin gently.
Morgan's head jerked up. "Father!"
She thought she had exhausted herself to the point where she could cry no longer, but upon seeing her father smiling at her, his head still swathed in bandages, she burst into fresh tears.
"H-hey!" Robin was slightly taken aback. He knelt down next to his daughter and started rubbing her back. "It's alright, sweetheart. I'm alive, it was just a scratch, see?"
"It w-was NOT just a scratch! Libra said it was a close call! It's all my fault, it's all my fault…" Morgan's voice trailed off into a sob.
"It wasn't your fault, Morgan," Robin tried to comfort her. "You couldn't have known that the bandits would have reinforcements on pegasi." He chuckled a little. "Bandits on pegasi. I still think it's a strange combination."
"It's not funny, Father!" said Morgan, her voice muffled. "I didn't plan for that! My plan nearly got you killed! The first battle I direct independently, without any input from you at all, and I nearly send you to your death!"
Robin sighed. His hair was as white as it had been when Chrom and Lissa first found him lying in the field, but the lines around his eyes betrayed his age. He had watched with pride as his daughter grew up to be a fine young woman, strong and capable. And here they were again, with him comforting her like he used to when she was younger and scraped her knee or quarreled with a friend or got rejected by her crush. He looked at Morgan affectionately. Always daddy's little girl.
But he couldn't shelter his little girl forever. He had to help her learn to face the world, no matter how hard it might be.
"Morgan." said Robin firmly, and forced her to look at him. Her teary eyes looked into his serious ones.
"Am I dead?" he asked her.
He put the question to Morgan in such a serious and straightforward manner that she couldn't help but giggle a little. It seemed like such an absurd question when he put it that way.
"No."
"Well then, there's no need to cry over anything. I was slightly younger than you are now – "he continued quickly, cutting off the protest that he saw coming, "– when I experienced my first major failure as a tactician."
Morgan's face was sober. "When your plan to save Lady Emmeryn failed."
Robin felt a twinge inside of him. After all these years, it still hurt.
"Yes," he said softly, "it failed. Emmeryn died that day."
"People aren't perfect," he continued, brushing a stray lock of hair away from Morgan's face. "We make mistakes. We fail. That's simply the way we are. We try our hardest to avoid such failures, but sometimes they are unavoidable.
When that happens, what is important is not that one has failed to achieve perfection. What is important is that one learns from that mistake, and never repeats it again. To sit around moping because of a failure, or to go away from that experience without having learned anything, is worse than making the mistake in the first place. If you learn from the mistake, you grow wiser and stronger, and you are better able to protect your loved ones."
Robin smiled at Morgan. "Your father learned it the hard way. If I see Emmeryn again, after I die, I hope she will forgive me. But you," he ruffled her hair gently, "you still have me around. In the end, nothing really bad happened. But it is still something you can learn from."
Morgan pondered this for a moment, then looked up at Robin. "I understand, Father. I'll learn from this experience, and I'll do better next time."
"That's my girl!" Robin said cheerfully. "Come on, let's see a smile on your face."
"It's hard to smile when you have the responsibility of thousands of lives on your shoulders," Morgan pouted.
"Don't complain," Robin warned. "Lucina has it much worse than you do. Being Exalt is a responsibility I gladly leave to Chrom. She will have more hard lessons to learn than you probably will, both during this time when she's being groomed for the role and afterwards when she takes over from Chrom."
"You're right," Morgan sighed. Robin got to his feet and held out his hand to her.
"Come on, Morgan. What do you say to a little shopping therapy?"
"But Father!" Morgan protested. "You haven't completely recovered yet!"
Robin laughed. "Don't worry about me. I don't plan on dying until I get to see my grandchildren."
"Father!" exclaimed Morgan, mortified. Robin twinkled at her, and she blushed a deep red.
"F-fine." she managed. "Let's go shopping."
She slipped her hand into his, and they walked out of the tent together. Feeling like a little girl again, she giggled and drew closer to Robin. "We haven't had a father-daughter date in a long time," she told him.
"Then this shopping date is long overdue," Robin smiled at Morgan. He squeezed her hand. "I love you, sweetheart."
Morgan held this moment close to her heart, savoring it. She knew that there would come a time when her beloved father would no longer be there to guide her. She knew too, that more challenges and hardship lay ahead of her. But her father had taught her something important. She would not let a person down the same way twice. She would keep moving forward, and become stronger.
"I love you too, Dad."