Scorpions in the Garden
I do not own Fire Emblem or any of its characters.
This is a for blankspectrum (LJ) for the fe_exchange prompt "Julius/Ishtar: enchanted"
Manster, 776
"Oh, Ishtar, did you know there was a beautiful flower garden in the yard? Let's go take a look."
Of course Ishtar knew of the courtyard garden of Manster Palace; she'd been there before with her parents several times over the years. The gardens of Manster and Alster weren't at all like the great displays around the palaces in Grannvale with their greensward and cunningly sculpted trees and rows of bright tulips like soldiers on parade. Here, the flowers and greenery blended perfectly into the stone walls and colonnade, the same way the silver mist and green rippling hills seemed to merge with one another at daybreak. All the colors here were soft and gentle, eggshell-blue and butter-yellow, pink and cream and little flashes of violet. Ishtar bent down to pick a curling sprig of little flowers whose name she didn't know; the new buds were rosy and the unfurled petals a pure sky blue.
"Myosotis scorpioides," said Julius, and his fingers brushed against her as he took it from her hand. "The vulgar call it Mouse's Ear, but it's also called scorpion-grass- you see the way the stem curls like a scorpion's sting? Fitting."
And he flung it away so the little curlicue of blossoms vanished into the shadows.
"How is that fitting?"
"It's been adopted by some of the rebels around here as their symbol. I won't speak the name they call it, but it's more unpleasant still than Mouse's Ear." He showed a quick flashing smile. "Such a pathetic people. Look around you here, and see what they call Cows' Lips and Toadflax and Crowfoot."
Ishtar glanced around at the lovely fragile blooms around them and could not for the life of her guess what might be Toadflax.
"Is there nothing here untouched by strife?" she said. Even the most innocent-looking flower had a covert meaning...
"It will pass," said Julius. In one seamless flowing motion he reached for a long-stemmed iris, plucked it from the ground, and presented it to her. "This... this is more like it, Ishtar. A queenly flower, a scepter, each petal market with a thunderbolt for you."
Ishtar smiled, for the deep-purple iris did indeed have a pale blaze on every petal.
"It's perfect."
"Of course," he said, and this time a slower, more indulgent smile brightened his pale face. "I wouldn't have let it touch you otherwise."
"Julius..."
They sat for a while in the peaceful courtyard, nestled against a low stone wall fringed in lacy flowers. Ishtar heard birds rustling in the greenery, heard the water plashing in a little ornamental stream, heard Julius as he breathed. His hands in hers felt warm and strangely frail, as though his fingers were nothing but bone, and not for the first time she felt that all the power in her own body was meant to protect him. Julius seemed to have all the knowledge of the world already in his head, and all these grand visions dancing before his eyes, and yet all those gifts were bound to a body so slender, so prone to falter...
Ishtar leaned down, that she might kiss him on the brow, but she felt his fingers tense around hers.
"Don't pity me, Ishtar."
"I never-"
"Let me show you." And he rose to his feet so quickly that she nearly stumbled as he pulled her forward. "Did you see the lily pond?"
"Yes, I-"
"They're as beautiful as stars fallen from the sky," she heard him say. "But I can make them more beautiful still. Watch."
He held one flawless lily blossom before her, and she watched at the petals changed, turning from snow-white to a shimmering silver.
"Just like your hair." His high voice dropped to take on an almost silken quality. "Ishtar..."
She could feel the burning tips of his fingers against her ear as he tucked the lily in place. Ishtar looked into his eyes for a moment, then forced herself to look away as her cheeks grew as warm as his touch. But Julius cupped her face between his hands, and she closed her eyes and let her lips slide open in anticipation of his kiss.
By the time they went in, he'd turned every lily in the pool to either silver or scarlet, her color and his own glowing upon the water, lighting up the shadowed courtyard with the dazzle of fallen stars.
Julius is somewhat more of a character in FE5, that's for sure. All the flowers referenced here are spring wildflowers of Ireland. As for Myosotis scorpioides, otherwise known as forget-me-not, it's been used as a political symbol over the centuries. It also shares a title with a Japanese-only FE5 fanfic I "read" via Google Translate and rather regret.