Dust Covered Portraits
She would've love to meet her mother, just once- Lucina-centric (cross-posted on ao3 and tumblr.)
Her fingers sparked with the electricity still pulsing through her veins, lighting up her whole body. The random bursts of lightning still shot from her hands, hitting random places of the abandoned house and missing her target completely. "This woman still loves you this much, huh?" A low growl emitted from her lips, completely void of every emotion but irritation.
"She holds no meaning to me," the blue haired lady frowned, blade held up and ready to strike at the perfect moment. Avoiding the bursts of electricity as best as she could, her jumps and flips would easily strike envy into any acrobat. Harsh, quick pants filled the air between the two women, a deadly atmosphere pulling them back from killing each other. Not yet.
Not yet.
"But you hold dear in her heart," the cracking voice stopped abruptly, letting her fingers speak for her as she shot thunderbolts one after another. Hurriedly charged Thoron shots chased after one another, some homing early onto their target. "Lucina, it's useless. Your precious world is gone," the cowl fell from her head, revealing a head full of pink hair tied neatly with a cowlick at the top.
Didn't seem like what this… monster would like its appearance to be. In fact, the only thing that seemed demonic about the look was its glowing red eyes, clichéd but it managed to strike fear in anyone that she looked at. And sometimes, the glow would go and a sad shade of brown would take over and glaze over the monster's eyes. The lightning would evaporate and the whole demeanor would change from threatening to depressed and it seemed as thought it would give Lucina to run or escape so as to not get hurt any more.
Like now.
The body limped down, falling over fully for once as Lucina watched with anxious eyes. Her hands laid limp in front of her, lightning still cracking from the numb fingertips but not shooting out like previously. Loud, harsh pants escaped and it raised its head up, brown eyes looking pitifully at Lucina. The bottom lip trembled, and it whispered, "Just end it now, Lucina. Your world would be eternally grateful."
"This is a trap," she growled, not fitting of a lady but fitting of a warrior. Her sword was still raised, ready to strike as soon as it gets up. Sharp blue eyes, eyes of the future exalt that would soon clear the skies, glared down at the woman lying limp in front of her. Only when the glow in her eyes was gone would Lucina tell herself that it was still a woman's body she was fighting against. Maybe her mind wasn't in the right place, but the woman had to be roped into this plan somehow. "Once I get close, you'll just get up and attack me again."
"Lucina, please, just kill me." The tremble in her lips increased as the husky voice begged. The sparks were fading quickly, evaporating just a fast as they would appear. "I'm helpless; I'm limp; I'm weak and Grima isn't here any more. Please. Lucina, before he returns."
"I-" She shouldn't be hesitating so badly; she should just kill her and get it over with. The skies will clear; the sun will shine and the country will get to experience joy once more. Yet, she's standing in front of her final obstacle and hesitating. Her fingers shook while holding tightly onto the handle of her sword, adjusting and re-adjusting her grip constantly so that her hand would feel more comfortable.
"Just do it, Lucina. Do it!"
The woman gripped onto the lady's leg and Lucina finally stabbed the woman right in the heart from the back. A last look, a warm look even, from the woman caught Lucina's eyes and the future exalt kneeled down to look the woman in the eye one last time. Reaching a hand out, the woman lightly brushed her cold fingers against Lucina's cheek, "I wish we could've met under happier times, but this probably doesn't mean much to you." A last smile grace the woman's lips, the first Lucina had seen from her, before her hand fell onto her chilling body and her eyes closed.
Lucina looked down at the woman, feeling more than a little bit of pity for the woman lying dead before her. She slid Falchion out of the woman's body, looking sadly at the blood that stained the silver blade before carrying it out of the decaying manor. "Another innocent dead because of Grima," she looked down at her hands and sighed once more. "At least my friends got out safely, now I just need to locate them and congratulate them as well."
"Miss Lucina, please get ready for dinner soon," A maid ran up to the lady and bowed before telling her.
"I will, thank you for informing me, Marianne," Lucina smiled and waved the maid off. She walked off into the castle, passing by a door that was supposed to be forever locked; the room that was supposed to belong to the current exalt but was kept under close security because of the 'secrets' that it was supposed to hide.
Now, Lucina was never a girl who wanted to peek or even know the secrets of someone else. Not any of her friends, not Owain or anyone else within the royal family. But the mahogany door that separated the dusty room from the rest of the castle was the one thing that made her curious. Telling herself that she would leave once she checked if the door was locked, she breathed in deep and exhaled everything she had.
Looking around and noticing no one around, she walked towards the door and pushed the door open- genuinely expecting the door to be locked.
Surprise to her, the door opened without even the slightest creak that was supposed to come from the worn out and surely rusted hinges. Still, she told herself that she would only leave if she found out the door was locked. The door wasn't locked and she opened the door a hint so that she could fit her slim body through. Her fingers gently pushed the backside of the dusty door closed so nobody would know that she was inside of the room.
Her eyes scanned over the contents in the room, noticing it was simply a master bedroom covered in dust and cobwebs. After years of fighting a monster that was stuck on taking over the world and defeating it, a little dust and cobweb shouldn't bother her.
She walked through the wooden floors, wincing at every creak that they made and wondering why the floorboards were creaking yet the door was quiet as a mouse, and looked at all the elaborate decorations. Golden ornaments still in perfect condition and silver frames covered in light coats of tarnish framed the walls. The golden chandelier that hung from the ceiling swung lightly and Lucina looked up at it, wondering why it was swinging when no wind was present before wondering if it was going to fall on her.
Quickly walking away from the chandelier, she stuck to the walls of the room and brushed her fingers against the carvings. Her eyes managed to see a little in the dark room, and she felt her fingers brush against a soft type of cloth. She pulled the curtain back a bit, and saw light rays from behind the curtains. She pulled the cloth back and saw that it was time for the sun to set. The room, despite being covered in layers upon layers of dust bunnies, was illuminated by the warm rays.
Finally being able to witness the room in its full glory, she looked around the room and saw that it was larger than she thought. Her eyes caught sight of a covered painting, taking note of the cloth that stood out from the rest of the room seeing as it seemed as though it had only been changed recently. Almost automatically, she walked towards the red cloth and stared up at it for a moment, deciding whether she really wanted to pull the cloth.
Breathing deeply once again, she took hold of the edge of the smooth cloth and pulled.
Looking up at the framed portrait, she looked at the beautifully painted picture of her father and a woman. Both were cloaked in a mixture of armour and royal dressing. The mix was a lot more prominent in the woman's clothing, as Lucina could see the clear mix of the corset and long skirt from the royal dresser mixing with the more risque attire of both the dark mage and sorcerer. The pink hair of the woman was tied up and hidden by her attire but Lucina could still see the slightly curly hair peaking out and the braids that rounded her head like a crown. A hint of pink hair was peeking out from the small tiara that rested on the woman's head.
But what caught Lucina's attention was her eyes; a warm sort of brown that was common yet still familiar. She didn't remember where she had seen it, either around the castle or somewhere near the castle, but she didn't hadn't seen the eyes of a woman like that around in the streets. The lashes weren't that long, which was probably what made the eyes unique.
The eyes…
That hair…
Lucina widened her eyes and she gulped, finally noticing who the woman looked like. Was she really just another innocent that Grima had claimed for his horrible project; was she really just another poor soul that was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time? Lucina glanced at the woman's hand, seeing a mark of Grima on the back of her palm, before glancing at her own. Looks like the blood of Grima didn't run in her own, or maybe Naga's mark overpowered his.
Her gloved hand ran along the bottom of the picture, sparing a sad smile at the couple in the picture. "Father, mother," she began choking up with tears stinging at her eyes. She's never really seen her parents' faces after all, and it was time to see how much she resembled either of them.
The blue hair and blue eyes she could see, and Lucina questioned if her father's hair would always fall into his eyes and did it ever annoy him to the picture. The mark of the exalt was clearly shown on his arm and she smiled slightly, remembering the invisible connection that she had with her parents, especially her father.
But her mother- Lucina felt so far away from the smiling woman in the picture. Her hand reached out and touched the oil painting of the long, detached sleeve of the sorcerer attire before dropping her hand. She couldn't feel her mother with her, probably because she couldn't feel any connection to her mother like she could her father. Lucina had never felt the need to learn how to wield tomes and never wanted to in the heat of battle. The only weapon she had ever used was her Falchion that her father had passed down to her. Lucina couldn't see the resemblance between her and her mother at all and it hurt.
It hurt even more when the day she killed Grima came into her mind; the way that woman (her mother) had begged for her own daughter to end her life- to end the world's suffering. The pitiful way her eyes had looked into Lucina's own, probably looking at the exalt's mark that was in her left eye now that she thought about it, and how she had practically screamed the command at her own daughter to kill her.
It hurt just thinking about it.
She ran her fingers through her layered hair, before feeling a light gust of wind blow past her. Look back, she saw the window closed but the light that was previously shining through had already dimmed and was now casting long shadows across the room. It still wasn't time for dinner yet but Lucina could feel the need to get away from this room. Leaving the room with the cloth thrown haphazardly on the floor, she walked towards the door. Looking past her shoulder, at the portrait of the couple one last time, she opened the door small enough for her body to fit through once again before closing the door and making a mental note to herself to tell the head guard that the door was unlocked and that they should lock it before some… unwanted visitors went in.