The sun had set a good deal of hours ago, and even the lanterns were starting to burn a bit dim, but Chrom still found himself sitting behind a desk, pouring over treaties and hearing the word of his advisers. Every time he made a motion to go and do something, anything that didn't involve sitting in a barren room reading dispatches, somebody would run up with a new issue that needed his opinion right now, Exalt's crown or not. As it turned out, there were very few worse times to assume power than immediately after a major war.
He wondered how his sister had ever coped with all of these responsibilities- just three months of them and he was ready to invade Plegia again just to get an excuse to get out of the palace. But he couldn't, of course. Even entertaining the thought was betraying her memory; without her sacrifice he would probably have still been fighting the first war. He didn't miss the fear and pain that came with fighting one bit, though he did miss constantly being around the other Shepherds. One of the few pleasures he had had in these last few weeks was when Robin dropped by to regale him with stories about the various mishaps that had been going on while he was sealed in a prison of paper.
Right as his thoughts drifted to his tactician, the door opened to reveal the man himself, his frame bulked by the massive coat that he persisted in wearing despite the stuffy heat of the palace. For a moment Chrom thought he was limping, but then he realized that he was awkwardly trying to keep step with somebody who was clutching him tightly from behind, their arms wrapped around his midsection.
"Hello, Robin. I'm sorry I haven't met with you today." Robin stumbled from the door to his desk, and Chrom rose from his seat to get a better look at him. "Is there something wrong?"
"No, I'm perfectly fine," Robin said, coming to a halt in front of his desk. "There's just something I thought you would need to know."
"What would that be?" Chrom said, remaining standing, knowing that the news Robin brought was usually of the sort that involved swords and deadly new spells. The pair of slender arms clutching across his torso also slightly unnerved him.
"Well, seeing as you're our commander, and my friend, I thought you would like to know that Tharja and I have decided to get married," Robin said. As he finished the sentence a muffled giggle emerged from the space behind his back, and Chrom realized who the arms belonged to. The woman was probably psychotic with joy right now; it was surprising that she was even letting Robin walk. Robin didn't exactly seem displeased himself, the second the words left his mouth a sort of dopey grin crossed his face and stayed there for quite a while.
"Oh. Well congratulations, sincerely," Chrom said, sitting back down. "It's nice to have some news delivered to me that isn't about a new refugee camp that needs food. " And besides, as sudden as the news was, it was good to see that Robin actually had interests that lay outside maps and old military texts. Even if his choice of a mate did unnerve him a little.
"We aren't going to have the wedding immediately, of course. Apart from it being sudden we don't want to be overshadowed by the spectacle of the royal wedding." Robin said.
Chrom slapped his head. "You know, if you hadn't mentioned that, I might have forgotten I have a future wife who's probably going to kill me the second I get out of this office five hours late."
"Sumia's fine, Chrom. Last I saw her she was more concerned about how she was going to ruin the royal family than how much time you spend working." Robin shrugged as well as Tharja's arms permitted. "Anyway, with your permission, we'd like to hold the wedding in the great hall of the palace."
"Of course. You're my tactician, you get the wedding a royal tactician deserves." Chrom said.
"Nothing too extravagant, Chrom. We don't want anything like a parade of trained wyverns escorting us to the altar." A muffled voice from behind him replied, "Maybe just a few."
"Well, anything you want within reason will be granted. With the obscene expenditures we've been stacking up for the royal wedding I don't think I could rightfully deny you the same privilege. Besides, it's the least I could do for the man who won us the war with Plegia," Chrom said.
"That's the other thing we wanted to talk with you about, actually." Robin said. "Tharja's family."
Chrom wondered what he was talking about for a moment before he realized what Robin was talking about. Tharja had defected from the Plegians to join with the Shepherds a few months before the end of the war, right before Emmeryn had made her sacrifice. Right after joining she had developed an obsessive interest in Robin that she made little effort in concealing, and her desire to remain in his vicinity had made any question of her returning to her homeland moot. One of the many documents Chrom had handled in these last few months was a fast-tracked application for her citizenship in Ylisse, which he was slightly relieved to see was not a prospect doomed to anger, one-sided betrayal, and liberal distribution of curses.
Still, Tharja's own view on her nationality did not change the fact that her family, by reputation a powerful clan of dark mages, was still with Plegia. That raised a number of potentially uncomfortable issues. What if her family was actually fanatically loyal to the country and resented their daughter's defection? What if the wedding came across as just another insult to the defeated nation? What if her parents refused to grant Robin their daughter's hand? Tharja would ignore their wishes, without a doubt, but it would nonetheless ever widen the cavernous rift that had grown between the two nations.
"That could be a problem," Chrom said after a moment of thought. "We aren't exactly in the Plegians' best graces right now, and things would only get worse with a cabal of dark mages in the camp against us."
"I also don't like how easily this could be turned into a propaganda story against us. I'll admit that it wouldn't look entirely right from an outside perspective, invading their land and stealing their women and all," Robin said.
With an indignant grunt and the faint sound of flesh peeling off of cloth, Tharja loosened her grip on Robin's back. "You didn't steal me. I came on my own. In fact, if I hadn't been able to come, I would have stolen you. I have plenty of curses that would make it easy."
"You know your family better than we do, Tharja. Is this wedding going to turn into the excuse for our next international incident?" Chrom said.
Tharja shrugged, which was accomplished by maneuvering her arms up and down Robin's torso. "I really don't know if the entire family would go along with it. I'm reasonably sure that Mother would be sympathetic, and everybody's opinions tend to swing her way, but the majority opinion has gone against her in the past." She laughed with contempt. "Usually when there was money or status involved. They aren't nationalists by any stretch of the imagination, but when their daughter is offered a spot in the King's Royal Guard they start waving the banner like everybody else."
"So your defection didn't make you popular with your family?" Chrom asked.
"I got lucky. The late Exalt's sacrifice made the Mad King and people associated with him very unpopular overnight. My family was trumpeting the fact that I had seen through his mechanizations and left before I was even out of sight of the capital. Of course they kept quieter about the fact that I had gone with the invading army, so they still might see wedding the commander that defeated them as going too far, " Tharja said.
Chrom leaned back. This was going to cause him a lot of headaches. In retrospect he almost wished Robin had stayed with the maps and old military textbooks. "Do you think matters will go over easier if we just make it a small, private ceremony?"
"There are only two ways to make a dark mage your enemy for life: kill one of their loved ones, and don't invite them to a relative's wedding," Tharja said, her voice completely serious. Robin added, "And if we hold the wedding in secret that would just make it seem worse when they do find out."
Chrom sighed and stood up again, and walked over to the window that provided his only source of natural light during the day. Right now it still provided some ambient light, with a full sky of stars on display. He stared at them for a while, wondering if any of them had ever had to worry about something so base as diplomacy.
All at once, a resolve came over him. He turned around. "All right. You'll have your wedding. We'll hold it a few months after the royal wedding, so it's viewed clearly as its own distinct event. Tharja, you can tell your family to come and bring as many guests as they want, or if you like I can send my most valued and tactful messengers to break the news for you. But that's not all."
"I'm going to invite Plegian vassals, important merchants, diplomats, whoever seems popular with the new government. At the same time I'm going to have my own people in the court running around making sure all of them are as comfortable and happy as possible. We'll use the wedding as an excuse to broker new treaties and trade agreements on favorable terms for the Plegians. Nobody will be able to say that the wedding was an insult to their nation when we practically invite the entire populace, and none of them will speak ill of the event if they see the potential to garner money or favor. We won't just make it through this without offending Plegia, we'll use it as an opportunity to make them our trusted allies. And if your family is as status-hungry as you say, they won't dream of raising an objection." Chrom walked back over to his desk. Suddenly his own wedding seemed like a minor issue. His head was buzzing with the names of various advisors who could help him set up this new spectacle. This was the sort of thing Emmeryn would have done- not just sit in an office reviewing policies set up by other people, but take a proactive role in making things better.
He looked back up at Robin, who looked slightly perturbed at his sudden burst of enthusiasm. "Assuming you're both okay with the idea, that is," Chrom said.
"Will there be enough time in the day for us to get married?" Tharja asked drily.
"Of course. Your word will be final," Chrom said sheepishly. He was slightly hesitant to say that sort of thing to Tharja of all people, but he still meant it.
"Then it sounds perfect. Thanks for all the thought, Chrom," Robin said. He and Tharja said their good-nights, and frog-marched out of the room as awkwardly as they had come in.
Chrom watched them go, and looked back down at the paperwork that now seemed even less interesting to him. A final thought crossed his mind, and he turned down all the lanterns before leaving the room for good. Most of the work he had left could be done whenever. Starting work on the new wedding could wait until tomorrow. Until then, he needed to get away from this room while he was still in a good mood.