A Compilation of Goodbyes.
"Chrom! It's always about Chrom! What about us, mother!?"
Cordelia stood in quietly in the hallway, stopped dead in her tracks by a seething raven haired girl pulled into tight pigtails. This firebrand of a girl barely rose to her meet her neckline, and yet she stood with such forced bravado that Cordelia had to acknowledge her.
Behind this brazen girl hid a younger face draped beneath the hood of a robe, locks of cherry red gently quivering from beneath the shroud as she clung to the raven-haired girl's arm. For once, in front of these two girls, the mighty Cordelia was at a loss for words.
"My duty-"
"It's always about your duty!" The raven-haired spitfire snarled before Cordelia could even begin to defend herself. By Naga's grace... fighting a brigand unarmed and blindfolded would have been easier than this very moment.
"Sometimes I even wonder if you love Chrom more than father…"
"Mother…" the younger meekly squeaked, awaiting Cordelia's response.
She had heard these accusations before. From the nobles in court, from the other pegasus knights, from servant hearsay in the castle… but coming from her own daughter- the very affirmation of her love for Robin...
This would not stand.
Young Morgan stood cowering behind her sister Severa, knuckles white from gripping onto her sister's sleeve while tears battered at the dam walls. She was no doubt roped into Severa's "master plan to get mother to confess" as an extra emotional punch. Severa herself was half on the verge of crying as well, despite the mask of anger she had forced onto her youthful features. Their mother could always see right through them, but if this is what Severa needed, then so be it.
"Let me finish, my daughter." Cordelia had mustered every ounce of matronly strength into her voice, a tone that Severa had never heard before. The brazen girl was taken aback, and poor little Morgan could not decide whether to be terrified or crying.
"'Tis true." Cordelia closed her eyes, letting out a long drawn out sigh. Before her daughters had time to react she continued on with the confession, "I loved Chrom in that way that all young, naive women love a great and noble man."
Severa's confusion at the analogy was not surprising, the adolescent mind was still learning the works of the world beyond their own. The dams of Morgan's tears had already burst, as if Cordelia had truly proclaimed that she loved someone else. Yet as much as she wished to comfort her youngest, she must settle this matter with Severa.
"Your father…"
She contemplated that day, when Robin had opened her eyes. When she began to see her life in a new light. Even in those dark days...
"Your father however… He is a man that I love with my mind and my heart. He is not an idea… an image that I looked up upon. He is but a man. A selfless, stubborn, airhead of a man, but he is no ideal- no image that I put on a pedestal to worship."
Cordelia smiled, nostalgia of both the good and the bad dancing within her memories. Her daughters stood silent as she contemplated, trying to find words to weave into their tale, yet none simple enough for such young minds to comprehend.
"We grew together as comrades in arms- as friends- and he helped me realize a great many things about myself… One of those things was how complete we feel with one another."
Cordelia stooped down, sweeping both of her beloved daughters into her arms.
"Much like now, with you girls. I understand that my duty to another man- our lord- takes me away from you two, and my heart aches when we are parted, for you two make me as complete a woman as your father does."
She held them close, clutching them to her breast like the day they were born. Their soft locks tickled her cheeks as she rested her chin in the perfectly shaped crook between the girls. The deep raven black of their father's and cherry red of Cordelia's own made a wondrous juxtaposition; the simplest portrait of her and Robin's unity.
"Chrom is my honor, but you girls and your father…" She buried her face in that comfortable nook between their heads, close enough to whisper to their ears. "You are my heart and my soul."
Cordelia could feel the dampness upon her breast and the heaving upon their shoulders, and could do naught but hold them tighter.
"Now, my beautiful miracles," she planted two kisses upon the tops of their heads in hopes that the emotion within would banish this vile curse of doubt, "I was on the way to tell you that your father and I were going to a small dinner with Lord Chrom and his wife, and the young lady Lucina was asking if you two would be coming."
"Cousin Luci!?" Morgan instantly perked up, eyes twinkling with exuberance before the tears had dried from her cheeks. She was her father's daughter through and through.
"Uncle and Auntie…" Severa murmured quietly to herself. For the longest time, in front of Cordelia it had always been "Lord Chrom" and "Lady Sumia". Very formal, very dry, despite the closeness of their families. It warmed her heart to hear Severa call Chrom and Sumia like she had when she was a babe.
"Come now, my daughters. Let us get ready for the dinner with your father and the Exalt's family."
"Yes mother!" Morgan had taken off without even waiting for the sister that she always clung to, a bundle of giggles and carefree smiles once again. Her sister, however, hovered still before the greatest of pegasus knights.
"Cynthia will want to play Justice Alliance though, mother." Severa huffed, crossing her arms and trying her best to avert her face so that the evidence of her crying would not be so plain to see. Cordelia knew what Severa meant, despite the later believing that her mother did not care.
"Well then, my young lady." Cordelia stood up straight and proper for her daughter, exemplifying the posture of a lady of the court of Ylisse. "We will have to dress you most beautifully, so that your cousin does not mistake you the villain again." She ran a hand through her daughter's silken pigtails, expertly free the knots with deft fingers. "And, my love, if she still wishes to play, simply tell her that you wish to be on her side this time. After all, you are family, and may well be comrades-in-arms in the future, Naga forbid."
"Leave the rivalry for the training grounds, there is no need for it in court with our esteemed loved ones." Cordelia added the last point with a gentle press of her finger to her daughter's nose, well aware that that the "rivalry" was not necessarily all of little Cynthia's doing.
"Yes mother." The faintest of smiles as Severa spun on her heel with the natural grace she inherited from her mother. Timidly the girl looked back over her shoulder.
"Mother I'm… sorry-"
"It is alright, my Severa."
Before the fiery girl could take off down the hall after her sibling, a memory flashed to the fore of Cordelia's mind. It was the briefest melancholic visions from years past, of a familiar comrade-in-arms that she could barely remember the face of… but still…
As swift as a lightning bolt Cordelia caught her daughter's hand.
"Mother?"
Within Severa's soft palm, Cordelia placed her signet ring. Gently she closed her daughter's hand over it, clasping those innocent hands between her own calloused and war-torn.
"I will always love you, my daughter. No matter where I am or what happens between us, I swear this to you. Let my ring be a reminder of this."
Her daughter's eyes were wide in awe, the faintest dew welling up in the already reddened and puffy corners.
"Now get along… knowing your younger sister she is already dressed and fussing with her hair. She'll no doubt need your help." Cordelia's smile was honest and warm, just like it had always been to Severa, no matter what trouble the young girl got herself into.
"I love you too… Mother."