The Flame
In modern times, it could be called a shotgun wedding.
But in the era of medieval, magic, and dragons, it was simply doing something special while you still had the chance.
In fact, many couples took advantage of this on the night before the final confrontation with Nergal and his morph army. Star-crossed lovers proclaiming their forbidden love; liege and retainer sealing their relationship to the highest degree possible...
A young man who initially couldn't stand the sight of his future wife until he grew to love her.
For the longest time, Erk would do everything in his power to avoid the "young, defenceless cleric" who plagued him so. Serra, on the other hand, simply ignored his annoyed sarcasm and determined attempts to flee from her presence. This went on for the majority of their time travelling in the same group.
Until the night Erk started playing his flute.
It was given to him by his foster mother, Louise, when they were first reunited. She said that perhaps he should learn a new hobby and to try it out sometime, and unbeknownst to them, Serra had accidentally listened into the conversation. She never mentioned it, and Erk never bothered playing it until weeks later.
It was late into the evening, and he was the only one at the campfire for the moment. He pulled his flute out, figured 'why not?', and tried to play a few notes.
It didn't sound so good. In fact, it sounded like a bird was choking.
And everyone who heard it, though they weren't nearby, agreed with that statement.
"Who's making that racket? I'm trying to go to sleep!"
"I was in the best part of my book, and you ruined it!"
"Have you no decency?"
Dismayed, Erk threw the flute to the ground, annoyed. He usually didn't get frustrated easily, but maybe it was the fact that Louise gave him that flute that got him so frazzled. Regardless, he groaned and simply watched the fire burn for a while, until someone picked up the flute and handed it to him.
It was Serra.
"Nobody should be chastised for trying something new."
Erk could not believe his ears, much less his eyes, at the fact that it was Serra who was trying to encourage him in that moment.
And after that event, something just clicked between the two of them.
The next day, Erk stopped avoiding the cleric; he had stubbornly refused to admit it to himself, but Serra was a good person underneath her annoying persona, and therefore he was being a jerk. He still found her annoying, but little by little, he grew to appreciate her presence. And concerning Serra, what had started as a diversion grew into following the mage because she enjoyed his company, not because it was simply something to do. They even revealed secrets to each other; Serra wanted her first child to be named Darcy, and Erk had a weakness for pigtails.
Through conversations like those, their relationship continued to grow more and more, and then, before they knew it, it was the night before the final battle with Nergal. The whole army had been warned that it was possible some would not live to tell the tale, so if anyone wanted to take care of anything, to make sure that it was done tonight. Lucius had volunteered to be the minister if any wished to be married, and to his surprise, a large group of young couples ran to his side to take him up on the offer.
After the large crowd had been taken care of, he asked one last time if anyone wished to be united in holy matrimony. Erk and Serra were watching the situation, and Serra was being uncharacteristically quiet, but when Lucius made his final statement, Serra, while avoiding eye contact, gently intertwined her hand with Erk's and gave it a light squeeze.
Erk got the hint immediately.
After they were officially announced as husband and wife, they retired to their tent, where they were expected to "seal their arrangement", so to speak. When they were finished, Erk got the flute that Louise gave to him and broke it in half, giving one half to Serra and keeping the other one for himself.
The half he gave to Serra had a flame engraved on it; his favourite magic element.
Serra was about to protest, but Erk simply smiled and shook his head, so she never brought it up again.
The next day, the group went to confront Nergal, and they succeeded... but then, they were tasked with defeating the dragon Nergal called before he expired. It was a tough fight, and after a long time of ragged fighting, the dragon was defeated, and the world could live in peace.
However, when they did the final roll call... Erk was missing.
No one had noticed when he simply disappeared, or how he disappeared; the fact was that Erk was gone. Serra was understandably disturbed by this, and spent much time digging through piles of rubble and rock, hoping, praying that her husband was simply stuck under debris and, once found, could be reunited with the group.
"Just one more rock!" she would protest every time someone tried to lead her out of the temple, but despite her objections, she was eventually forced to leave the site, and she bawled the entire way back.
No one blamed her for this.
After all, anyone would be upset if they lost their spouse after only being married for one night.
After leaving the Dread Isle for the last time, everyone went their separate ways upon returning to the mainland. Serra, along with her fellow Ostians, went back to the royal palace, for what else could she return to? She continued her work as a castle cleric, but she did her job half-heartedly. Lord Hector eventually attempted to comfort the distressed cleric, but it was then that she revealed that she was pregnant from her deceased husband.
Hector did not speak of the matter again.
Months passed, and Serra was slowly becoming like her normal self once again. Besides, despite the difficulties of pregnancy, how could one be upset when they knew that life was growing inside them? Serra even began getting excited over whether it would be a boy or a girl; the consensus of the other castle dwellers was that hopefully it would be a boy, for another Serra to be born into the world would be a very difficult situation to handle indeed.
During the 9th month of gestation, Serra began to miss Erk again. He was the one who gave her the gift of this child, but he won't even be around to see it when it's born.
For the first time since fighting at the Dread Isle, she pulled out her half of the flute that Erk had given to her, and began to cry. Slowly, though, as she examined the engraved flame, she realized that she should be strong. Be strong to protect the baby. Be strong to protect herself.
She vowed not to cry again until the day the baby was born.
After a few final weeks of increasing discomfort and excitement over the arrival of Serra's child, the magical day arrived, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He possessed the confident grin of his mother, but the shy eyes of his father, and the same purple hair as well. Serra couldn't be prouder of the child she gave birth to.
"Congratulations on your new son," a castle maid said, happiness clearly evident on her features. "What do you wish to name him?"
Now is when Serra's face drooped with distress. She knew this day was coming, but she still didn't want to have to talk about it. "There is no other name I could give him..." she began, as tears welled up in her eyes, "...but the name of his father, Erk. At this point, I couldn't imagine naming him anything else..."
The maid was about to record the name of the child, but a voice stopped her in her tracks:
"I thought... that you wanted to name your first child Darcy..."
Serra's face perked up. That voice... she hadn't heard it so long... and she only told one person that secret...
"Erk? Erk! Is that you?" she yelled, and despite being completely devoid of energy from just giving birth, she mustered all the strength left in her body to try and jump out of the bed and confront the source of the voice. The maids tried to restrain her, but her adrenaline-filled vigor overpowered them, and she ran to the entrance of the room.
And standing there before her... was her long-lost husband.
"ERK!" Serra cried, and she jumped into Erk's arms.
Erk, meanwhile, simply smiled.
He was back.
EPILOGUE
A few days later, Erk recounted his tale on how he disappeared during the final battle, how he struggled to find a way back to the mainland, and how he was eventually able to find his way back to Ostia. It was a terrifying tale, and he said many times that he had almost given up on being able to return to his wife and homeland of Elibe...
...but he would look at his broken flute, and realize that his flame; his favourite magical element; and the one who possessed his heart, needed him.
And he needed her.
To the present day, the two halves of the flute remained in a special chest for safekeeping, and every so often, the two lovers would take them out and reflect on their importance.
The flame on the flute was what kept them together; the flame of hope and rebirth, the flame they shared that could never be extinguished...
THE END
Author's Notes
This fic is for Fireminer! A few years ago, (YES IT WAS THAT LONG AGO) I received a somewhat lengthy PM on this pairing and what the fic should be about, and I must say I had been surprised, because almost no one had ever given a synopsis on how the fic should be written; usually it was just a pairing and maybe one detail. There were MANY details, and I hoped to use most of them, but I couldn't use them all for a few reasons: 1) some ideas would seem quite OOC on certain characters 2) some ideas were simply too difficult for me to implement 3) some ideas would simply ruin the flow of the fic in my opinion. I really hope I at least got the main ideas across, and made it the best it could be with the circumstances of the fic, but most importantly wrote an enjoyable story.
I still find it tough to write past tense, though. Even though that was my decision. :p
And... that's it. I have nothing else to talk about?! That's weird. :D Anyway, I only have one request left to write, but that will have to wait until after my next A Glimmer of Hope chapter!
I hope everyone (and especially Fireminer) enjoyed this story! If you want to leave comments, please remember to sign in before reviewing! How did this fic make you feel? Did this stray from my usual style? Were you worried I was going to have a sad ending for once? How was the quality? I'm curious as to how people viewed this, since I didn't come up with the original premise, which is a first. Hopefully it translated well when actually written as a fic!