Disclaimer: Everyone and everything you recognize belongs to Nintendo.
Characters: Nergal, Ninian, Nils.
Pairings: N/A.
Warnings: Spoilers if you haven't cleared Hector Mode with all Kishuna chapters.
Ilia was a cold land, but in the small house near the mountain, by the fireplace, it was nice and warm. The girl and her younger brother were huddled up in thick blankets near said fireplace, right next to each other. A few minutes ago, their daddy had retreated to his 'study,' assuming the two were dozing off and would fall asleep, for him to put to bed quietly when he came to check on them. But the girl had no intention of falling asleep. She had hidden one of daddy's black-covered books under the blanket and now grabbed it.
"Whazzat, Nini?" her brother asked, crawling even closer to her. "Doezzit haf pictures?" Ninian put the book on the ground in front of her, as it proved too heavy and clumsy for her little, weak hands to hold. She flipped through the pages, soon making a pouty face. Like her brother, she had hoped to see pictures in the book, but she couldn't find any. Unless she counted the swirly figures and their friends, the size of letters, but she couldn't see what they were supposed to be because they were so small.
In the room next to the one the children were in, their father rubbed his eyes and shoved his notes aside. Leaning back in his chair, he ran his hand through his own, dark teal hair. His back hurt from sitting hunched over for… whatever amount of time he had spent sitting hunched over his tomes and research. He got up, taking a few tomes in hand, and walked over to the rows and rows of bookshelves on the other side of his study.
He had quite an impressive collection of books and tomes on Elder magic. Other than his children, this collection was his pride and joy. After the many years he had spent with it, he knew where to find and store each book and tome, so he quickly found the empty spaces in the shelves where the books he was holding were supposed to go. However, as he reached back to his arm for the last book, he realized he wasn't carrying any more. How strange. Looking at the volumes surrounding the hole, he quickly deduced that the book supposed to go there was the Ereshkigal tome.
He did not have that tome on his desk, so he frowned. This was disturbing. Ereshkigal was supposedly enormously potent magic, capable of blowing a human to bits in one cast if held by the right hand. Nergal had paid good money to learn where he could find one of the five fabricated tomes, not to mention the small fortune the tome itself had cost him, and now it was missing..? He was a very tidy man. All materials that were not on his desk, were on the shelves. And yet now his most expensive tome was missing. This didn't add up.
"…put the children to bed first," he mumbled to himself, "You can look for it tomorrow, when you don't risk waking them up with your rummaging." On his way to his desk, he grabbed the file he needed and in passing, he dropped it on top of the open book he had been working in. His studies were vexing… he was fairly sure that if he hadn't had his children, he would have been lost to the darkness by now.
Fortunately, he had them, and they were in the living room with their backs to the door of his study. When he reached the fireplace, he saw one bundle of blankets lying horizontally on the floor, a tuft of light teal hair being the only thing that hinted at Nils being in there. The other bundle was sitting straight, but he knew Ninian sometimes fell asleep sitting up. He first picked up Nils, noting the weight he boy had gained since the last time. There was no way he could carry Ninian to her bed along with him, so he quietly left the girl as he went to put Nils to bed.
As soon as daddy was out of hearing and seeing range, Ninian opened her eyes and turned back to the book that she had obscured with her little body. For some reason, she found it fascinating. She still couldn't find any big pictures, but the tiny ones, the size of letters, were amazing. She wondered how anyone could draw pictures that small, what they showed her, and why the person who drew them had done so, what he wanted to tell her. For she had the idea that the pictures wanted to tell her something. She put one hand on each page as the book lay on the ground, bringing her nose within an inch of it. If she looked close enough, she would see it. The feeling that the book was trying to tell her something became stronger as she looked at it longer-
"Ninian!" She jumped, not unlike that time he caught her with her hand in the cookie jar. Nils had been the one who had wanted the cookie, but daddy hadn't listened to her when she said that, so now she couldn't think of what to tell him about the book. She knew it was bad to take daddy's books… but at least she didn't accidentally break it like she had with the cookie jar. "What are you doing with that-" Daddy picked up the book, shut it and looked at the cover.
"…where did you find this, Ninian?" She looked away, biting her lip. She was ready to cry. She could tell when daddy was angry. And he was angry now. He was always angry when she played with his books. "Ninian?" Now she shut her eyes, only to open them in shock when she felt daddy's hand on her head. "Ninian… daddy isn't mad. He just wants to know where you found his book."
Still biting her lip, Ninian pointed at the rocking chair next to her with a shaky arm. "It was… on the chair…" her voice wavered during the last few words, and she burst out into tears.
This had not been supposed to happen. Nergal sighed, frustrated with his own inability to calm down his daughter. Sure, she had grabbed the Ereshkigal tome of all things… but that really was no reason to make her cry. Of course the tome had been expensive… but that cost didn't weigh up against the thought of his own daughter being scared of him. "So it was on the chair," he repeated, "Daddy's been very sloppy, hasn't he?"
She looked confused. "Daddy forgot to put his book away. And just now, he couldn't find it. You found it, though. Thank you, Ninian." He patted her head and picked her up with one arm. "You're tired. Let's get you to bed, shall we?"
Ninian cuddled up to his chest, still not sure if she should tell him. But her parents had raised her to be honest, so she muttered: "It was talking to me."
"What was that, Ninian?"
"The book. It was trying to tell me something, I know it." She looked up at him, confidence growing with every word. "That book has a secret, and it wanted to tell me what it was, but I couldn't understand it. Can you listen to the book, daddy?" When she saw the way her daddy looked at her, she shivered. He didn't look angry, but surprised wasn't the word, either.
"Let me get this straight, Ninian… you… heard the book?" She nodded. She hadn't really heard it, but she didn't know what to call it then. Better not to confuse herself more. Suddenly, daddy's expression changed to a more neutral one. "Ninian, you have to promise daddy that next time you find one of his tomes, you will give them back without reading them."
"Huh?" He sounded strict… now she was definitely confused.
"Just promise that. Daddy's books have secrets, but they will get angry if you can't listen to them like daddy can." She looked up at him, utterly stupefied. "Believe me. Angry books are not like angry people. They can hurt you… and sometimes, that pain will never go away." She shivered.
"…I promise. I don't want pain." She leaned into his chest again, rubbing her eyes. She was suddenly very tired.
"That's daddy's little girl. Here we are…" Ninian didn't even notice that she was being put down in her bed. She'd promptly fallen asleep after making her promise.
Almost a thousand years afterwards, Ninian would still remember that night and finally understand what her father had meant.
Author's notes: Between little Nils and little Ninian, this just has to be the cutest thing I've ever written XD
Really, though, Nergal can't always have been a bad apple. Judging from the way he talks to them in Chapter 19xxH, Nergal at one point really cared about his children. This is my interpretateion of that, combined with the fact that in FE8, even Dancers could learn Dark magic through use of a glitch. What would have happened if our favorite half-dragon had been able to read runic and had been foolish enough to read the incantation aloud..?
I think only Nergal will ever have any idea of that.