Story Notes: To further elaborate on the summary, this series will be a collection of what essentially amount to Support Routes between my OC and various characters from Fates. Though there are more than a few characters I already have in mind that I wish to write about, I think taking requests for characters I didn't consider would be a good means of improving myself as a writer. Stepping out of my comfort zone should allow for further development, even if there will be flops along the way. One stipulation I must put forth is that I can only write Support Routes from the perspective of Conquest and Revelation, so keep in mind that I will attempt to write any members of the Hoshidan cast in-character within the context of how they act in Revelation. Requests can be submitted through either reviews or PMs, whichever you find most convenient, and can be as specific as you deem necessary. I can't promise that I'll go for any romance, considering that I already have an OTP for this game. Ship-teasing is still fair game, though.

Their Difference in Strength (Elise)

A bright afternoon shines upon the Ebon Roost on this day. At the center of the mage training grounds stand two figures, one short, the other tall. In front of them is an ice sculpture of a swan, which sparkles beautifully in the shimmering light of the sun looming overhead. Cyrus, the taller figure between the two, studies this sculpture, as if to evaluate it. Next to him is Princess Elise, who stands with a poorly veiled look of nervousness upon her countenance. A single bead of sweat trails down the side of her head as Cyrus nods once and looks to face her.

His stern expression gives way to a soft smile as he pats her on the shoulder. "You have done well, Milady; this sculpture has surpassed my expectations." Looking to the sculpture again, he takes a mental note of how it has yet to begin melting, despite this day being quite warm. "Your talent for the arcane arts is all the more apparent with the completion of this work, Milady. There are seldom few I've met in Erdboden that boast this sort of affinity for magic, and seldom more who can heal on top of that."

Elise giggles at this praise, unable to contain neither the quickly forming smile on her face, nor the blush on her cheeks. "That means a lot coming from you, Cyrus. You're super good with magic, you know? Even Leo thinks so, and he's the best wizard ever!"

"Such praise came from Lord Leo?" He dons a sheepish smile at this, and elects to look away while scratching at his cheek. "That's certainly unexpected." He directs his attention back to Elise, a smirk on his face. Elise's face turns serious in response to this, as if expecting some sort of surprise exam. "Speaking of unexpected, I have something I'd like to discuss with you, Princess Elise."

A smirk traces on Elise's face at this moment, causing Cyrus to raise an eyebrow as he looks to her expectantly. 'I studied the whole textbook; he can't surprise me now!' She lets out a huff, one that befits a woman of noble bearing. "Bring it on!"

"The other night, I saw you practicing in a different training area."

Just as quickly as it formed, Elise's confident aura shatters like fragile glass. 'Oh no! He saw me?! I thought everyone was asleep!'

While she panics, Cyrus continues, "You were quite remarkable; not many people can use throwing daggers to perfectly trace a heart around a bull's-eye. You even went a step further and pierced the bull's-eye itself dead center with one last dagger."

"Uh, um, yeah! About that…"

"I had no idea you were so dexterous." Elise's expression discards its nervousness to give way to confusion. "If you were to train under Felicia, you'd soon be a dangerous combatant with the Flame Shuriken we won from Saizo."

The princess' confusion is only compounded, so much so that she is compelled to ask, "Wait, so you're not mad?"

Now Cyrus is the one sporting a look of confusion. He looks to his sides, as if silently asking invisible companions why Elise would inquire such a thing. "I'm not upset with you, no; do I have reason to be?"

There is a certain disappointment and sincerity in Elise's response. Though her head is cast towards the ground, Cyrus knows full well the expression the princess currently wears. "Well, I was shirking my magic training to do something completely unrelated. I thought all teachers would get mad if they caught their students goofing off like that…" Cyrus chuckles at this, which causes Elise to look up at him with a frown on her face. "What's so funny?!" She then puffs out her right cheek, compounding her frown all the more. This only causes Cyrus to snicker.

"I think it's admirable that you wish to expand your repertoire, Lady Elise. It would be hypocritical of me to reprimand you, considering I do the same thing, but in a way that most point out is unhealthy." His words bring a smile to her face, though she still feels a tinge of guilt at having hid this information from him. 'I know that face all too well. It's the same one I often saw in the mirror when I was a lad, searching for my place in the family.' Seeing that Elise's expression of guilt has yet to fade, he presents a question. "Which would you rather focus on, Milady?"

"Huh?"

"Between fighting with the skill set of a Strategist or a Maid, which would you prefer?"

"Y- You're giving me a choice here?"

"Yes…I find it weird that you find this so odd."

"I don't see how!" Cyrus tilts his head at this, giving a silent indication of his lack of understanding. "You always look so sad, but when you're teaching me how to use magic, your smiles seem so genuine. If I switch over to fighting like a Maid, I'd be taking that from you…I couldn't do that."

A pained expression suddenly seizes command of Cyrus countenance; he heaves a sigh, closing his eyes to reflect on Elise's words. 'Gods be damned; why do I always end up with the observant ones?' He looks to Elise, taking care to choose his next words wisely. "If you are going to bring my happiness into question, then it is only fair that I do the same for you. Which do you enjoy more?" Taking a single look into Elise's eyes reveals her answer before she can speak it. Her gaze betrays a sense of obligation, rather than what should be commitment to a proper desire. Cyrus holds his hand up to signal for Elise to wait. "I want you to be honest with me, Milady; the lie you are about to tell is one I've told many times before, and the look in my eyes was far more convincing than what lies in yours right now."

She hesitates, having been caught off guard at being seen through so easily. "I- I want to train as a Maid. Flipping around the way Felicia does would be so cool…and the maid uniform is just so cute! Oh! And the poses! Have you seen the way Felicia looks after a battle?! She's all dignified and stuff, like she's in control and not scared at all; I wanna look that cool." Elise can see that Cyrus is preparing to give a response, but chooses to halt him by continuing her own train of thought. "But I still want you to teach me how to use magic…I could stick with the Strategist thing first and then switch to Maid later." She smiles, her face beaming as warmly as the sun above. "I have all the time in the world, right?"

Cyrus nods to her, smiling softly as he says, "I suppose so; it wouldn't do to rush something like this." He chuckles, though he is unsure as to why. "Perhaps I was being a bit selfish." That soft smile has now been replaced with one that is melancholic. "I was having fun as you lived the life I never got to experience."

"What do you mean by that?" The notion then dons on her, prompting her to lightly tap her fist to the side of her head. "Oh, duh, of course; I'm royalty. That's what you meant, right?" He shakes his head. "Huh?"

"While it's true that I didn't grow up as a blue blood, I'm referring to something that is far more important to me. You have a talent for all forms of magic, Lady Elise; you can make use of offensive tomes as well as support staves. When a battle is over, you can still contribute by treating the wounded. Compared to me, you might as well be a superhero."

Elise's thoughts turn to Arthur as Cyrus says his piece. She cannot help but smile at the thought of dressing up and playing the part of her valiant retainer's sidekick. She giggles at the thought before responding, "You really think so? I've never seen you use healing magic before, but I bet you'd be great if you tried!" Her words bring back Cyrus' pained expression, catching her off guard. He turns his head to look away from her, ashamed that he couldn't hide his momentary weakness. "Cyrus? What's the matter?"

"It's a bit complicated, Milady." The two stand there in silence for a moment, unsure of how to break the awkward tension that has suddenly appeared between them. Before long, Elise folds her arms and lets out a huff. Cyrus takes this as his cue to explain, lest he be reprimanded by the woman he unwittingly upset. "Healing magic, no, that would not be accurate. Anything tied to the element of light, which encompasses healing magic and all forms of support therein, is impossible for me to harness."

"Impossible? I thought that word was foreign to you? You're always telling me that I can do anything I set my mind to, so how can you just give up like that?"

"This is something I'm unable to fight against, Lady Elise. It's not so simple a matter of just not being good at a task; I was born with a birth defect that prevents my body from channeling the aether necessary to use such spells."

"Have you ever tried? Recently, I mean."

"I endeavor in the training often, actually. Every time I travel to a realm that isn't my own, I make an effort to test for healing magic within the context of that world. The result is always the same; attempting to cast even the most basic healing spell will result in me causing an explosion that serves to heal nothing." A look of shame plagues his face as he continues, "I've caused a lot of property damage because of my efforts. I still don't feel as if I've apologized to Lord Corrin enough for blasting a hole in the wall of the Records Hall."

Elise dons a look of surprise as she asks, "That was you?!" Cyrus' solemn nod leaves her speechless. "I had no idea." She assumes a contemplative stance, her expression quite serious as she asks, "Is there really nothing you can do to change?"

"As of now? No, nothing at all. It's just the way the dice rolled for me, Milady; I can't be entirely upset about it, considering my circumstances. I have powerful offensive magic, and was granted ever growing knowledge of the battlefield. I can't help people by healing them as the rest of my family could, but I have options. Others are born less fortunate than I am, so I should at least make an effort for them, rather than curse my birth. Things…" he hesitates, donning a momentary frown as he follows, "could have been worse."

"Worse? How so? Not being able to help people sounds like torture to me."

"I could be dead right now." Elise barely has a moment to make a shocked face before Cyrus continues, "Were it not for divine intervention, I would have died shortly before my seventh birthday. That defect I mentioned before; the imbalance it caused made my power a chaotic mess that was slowly killing me from the moment I came to be. I was bed-ridden for much of my time as a lad, having only a total of six hours to move around and function like a normal person."

"Six hours?! That's not enough time to do anything! You gotta use the bathroom, take long hot showers, eat, bug your brother to play with you…gods…it sounds so unfulfilling."

"That time, if you can believe it, could be shortened down to just three hours if I cast a spell for whatever reason. The level of the spell didn't matter either, which played in my favor a few times."

"I think you said once before that your family was full of healers, right?" He nods, causing her worried expression to devolve into one of emphatic pain. "I can't imagine how that must have been for them." She clutches at her chest, feeling a stinging pain that she can scarcely describe. "Just trying to put myself in their shoes makes my heart ache. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't do anything to heal my family after all the training I've done." Her pout returns; "That's so unfair; you deserve better."

Cyrus can't help but allow his warm smile to return upon hearing that. "It's kind of you to think as much." He turns his attention back to the ice swan Elise created; the sculpture is still as radiant and intact as it was when Elise first crafted it. In spite of the sun having been beaming its rays relentlessly this entire time, the sculpture is no closer to melting. There is a certain wistful tone to Cyrus' voice as he says, "Though I wish things could be different, I can live as I am." Turning back to Elise, he continues, "Watching you grow as a sorceress has reminded me that offensive magic, while destructive, can also lend to things that are beautiful. There…need not be any mutual exclusivity."

"You sound so sure, but are you really OK with that?" His response is a chuckle, causing Elise to pout and puff out a cheek once more. "It's not funny!"

"Your compassion is your greatest strength, Lady Elise; never lose it."

"Yeah, sure, but what does that have to do with anything?" He gives her no answer, instead choosing to return to silently gazing upon the ice swan. Elise, in an effort to grasp the relevance this sculpture seems to hold for Cyrus, alternates her attention between him and her creation. She eventually shrugs her shoulder, admitting to herself that, 'I don't get it, but if this makes him smile, then that's all that matters.'