Author's note: So I was having some writers block on Sword and Shadow and decided to work on something a bit different. This story will follow Heather on her journey to find an adventure of her own after the events of Radiant Dawn. Other characters from the game may show up here and there, as will original characters.

Warning: This fic will frankly play fast and loose with canon. I'm not really doing my research, I'm just going off what I remember from the game and my own interpretation of characters and events. If that's some cardinal sin of fanfic, then...well, I can't say I really care! I'm writing this one to have fun and take a break from the more serious Sword and Shadow.

So without further ado, I present the first chapter of Fate & Fortune. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: Sage Advice

Heather scanned the top shelf with a critical eye, ignoring the ogling looks from the three men at the corner table. Sure she was here alone, and a lot of guys seem to take that as some sort of challenge, but there was one advantage to drinking at this particular tavern which made it so she didn't have to worry about the local louts.

On the other side of the bar, Calill lightly chuckled at Heather's careful study of her liquor selection, "The stuff on the top is expensive, sweetie. And strong, careful not to drink too much."

Heather arched an eyebrow, "I've got money. And don't worry, I know my limits. A glass of the Unicorn Rainbow, please."

As Calill reached for the bottle, a barking laugh came from the kitchen, shortly followed by her bear of a husband shouldering his way through the door and out into the bar area, "Unicorn Rainbow! Who drinks that girly stuff?"

Calill suppressed a smile as Heather gave Largo a very flat stare, then looked down at her own chest and then back up to Largo, "If you haven't noticed, Largo, I happen to be a girl. Girly drinks suit me just fine."

Handing Heather her drink, Calill playfully smirked, "Oh, I'm sure he has. But he better not have done too much noticing if he knows what's good for him."

With another hearty laugh, the big berserker left the women at the bar and made his rounds of the room, stacking plates and cups all onto one big tray and hefting that easily with his one good arm to lug back into the kitchen. This had the side effect of suddenly putting the men in the corner on their best behavior.

Watching Largo go about his work, Heather chuckled, "You wouldn't think he was crippled at all from how he acts. Or how people react to him."

"Oh, a couple people have tried to push their luck. Usually ends with them flung out the door. Largo can lift and throw a grown man with only one arm just fine, thank you very much."

"And it only takes once or twice for everyone else to hear about it and decide causing trouble here just isn't worth it," Heather noted. Then she smiled and offered, "I still think you should put a sign up. 'This establishment owned by a berserker. You have been warned.'"

Calill's immediate reaction was to smile at the joke, then she paused and looked contemplative, "You know, I just might. I'll just need to put it somewhere that I can see people's faces when they read it. Largo would certainly find it hilarious."

Heather chuckled again, though it was much softer this time...and perhaps a bit forced, "You two work really well together."

An eyebrow arched a bit on the Sage's face as she caught the nuance in Heather's voice, "You sound a bit jealous."

Inwardly, Heather cursed at herself for slipping in front of Calill. She knew the woman picked up on everything. Of course that involved pretending she wasn't secretly hoping for just that to happen, but pretending was something Heather was very good at. Taking another sip of her drink, she shrugged rather noncommittally, "...maybe a bit."

"Boy troubles?" Calill asked, then half smiled and corrected herself, "Wait, this is you. Girl troubles?"

Heather rolled her eyes, "Oh shut up. I like boys too, I'll have you know."

"Is that the problem?" Calill teased, "having trouble making up your mind?"

"I just don't see the point in limiting myself to only half the world."

"Planning on sleeping around that much, are you?"

Heather sighed and half glared at her friend, "I don't know why I even bother bantering with you. I never manage to win."

Calill just laughed, "That's alright dear, no one ever really does." Softening her smile a bit, she sat down on her stool behind the bar and leaned in, resting her chin on her hands, "Alright, so why don't you tell me what's really bothering you then? I admit I was a bit surprised to see you here, I thought you were going back home?"

"I'm just..." Heather paused, a bit unsure what to say. After a moment of awkward silence, she shrugged, "I'm just not ready to go home yet. I'm thinking about heading out. Somewhere. Going to have an adventure, you know?"

An incredulous stare started to work it's way onto Calill's face, "Saving the world from an angry goddess wasn't enough for you?"

Heather sighed and shook her head, "No, it's not that. It's...well, that wasn't my adventure. That was Ike's story, and Michaia's, and Sanaki's, and Elincia's, and Kurthnaga's and even Sothe's. I certainly don't regret helping, but...I still feel like I want to go do something else. Something that's about ME. That probably sounds horribly selfish, but I think I can be allowed a bit of selfishness after helping to save the world from an angry goddess."

"Well you certainly won't get any arguments on that from me." The sage mused a bit then asked, "Any idea where you'll go? Hatari might be fun to go and see, if you can stand the heat."

"I was thinking about that, yeah." Heather took another sip, then noted, "the main problem isn't deciding where I'll go. It's...well, I don't really want to go adventuring alone. The world's still a dangerous place."

Calill narrowed her eyes, "Please tell me you aren't here to try and find adventurers in a tavern."

"What? No." Heather shook her head, "I'm just trying to figure out who I should get to go with me. Most everyone I was friends with in the war have actual lives to be getting back to now."

"Uh huh. Do I have to ask the obvious question?"

Heather gave Calill another glare before answering, "She said she was sick of fighting, that she just wanted to get back to her life in the country."

The glare only made Calill smirk, "Oh, you asked her already?"

"Well...no. She just said that during the war, so there's no point to even asking, right?"

"So what, you're not even going to try?" Calill's tone took on a sharp, almost judgmental quality as she spoke, "Are you going to just leave without so much as talking to her first?"

The tone stung, but Heather wasn't the sort to shrink from an accusing voice and she snapped right back at Calill, "Why shouldn't I? It's not like she'd ever be interested!"

As quickly as it had sharpened, the Sage's voice and expression softened with a quiet comprehension, "So are you still talking about going on an adventure or has the topic moved on to something else?"

Her friend's quickly shifting demeanor combined with the insinuated change of topic caught Heather off guard, and a blush managed to creep onto her face. A quick check revealed that her glass was still half full, so there was no blaming it on the alcohol, either. With a deep sigh, she just buried her head in her hands and stared at the bar-top for a long moment.

"I'll take that as 'yes, the topic has changed, now please shut up Calill'."

"I just can't ask her to go. If we spend that much time alone, just the two of us, I won't be able to stop myself from making a move. And then she'll hate me. I couldn't bear that. Nephie just means too much to me to risk our friendship because I can't control my libido." Heather didn't even look up as she spoke, just muttered into the counter through her hands.

Fortunately, Calill could understand what she was saying anyway, "I admit, I never pictured you as the type to agonize over this sort of thing. You always struck me more as a 'take your chances and if it doesn't work then oh well' sort of girl."

Finally Heather looked up, a half crooked smile actually breaking onto her face, "That's just it, normally I am. But I've never let something build into this kind of friendship without taking the risk before."

"It sounds to me like you're risking losing the friendship anyway," Calill offered with a half shrug. "Do you expect she'll think that you care about her at all if you just run off without so much as a goodbye?"

"...you're right, of course." Heather sighed, then eyed her cup again and drained the rest in one gulp. After blinking off the sudden headrush from the very potent alcohol, she smiled sadly, "It's just not fair. That the one girl I really fall for isn't going to return it. Must be some kind of justice for all the hearts I have jus' played with."

Calill let out a deep sigh of her own, "One, I warned you how strong that stuff was. You're already slurring. Two, you don't know that for sure. Listen, do you want my honest advice on this?"

Heather let out a most unladylike snort, "You gonna use it as a chance to snip at me s'more?"

"Probably, but only after I give you real advice."

The candid answer seemed to amuse the rogue as she shrugged and chuckled, "Sure, why not."

Calill made to sure catch Heather's gaze and hold it before speaking, "Talk to her. Tell her what you feel, and tell it to her straight. ...poor word choice, tell it to her plainly. Let HER decide what she feels and what she wants instead of trying to do it for her. Even if you don't get the answer you want, you'll at least get her real answer. And I think you're selling Nephenee a bit short if you really believe she won't even want to be your friend after that."

Heather was quiet as she listened to the advice. One of the side effects of this particular alcohol is that it tends to make the imbiber rather giddy fairly quickly, and under it's effects she could almost believe that everything would work out well. But the advice sounded a little bit too close to 'honesty is the best policy', which was frankly something that Heather had never much agreed with. Quick fingers, a quick mind and a quicker tongue were the tools of a rogue's trade. They'd always served her well before, why should she abandon them now? But on the other hand, Calill was married. Happily, even. She knew about relationships that lasted more then one night or one journey. Is that what I really want?

Calill quietly poured her friend a glass of water as she sat there in thought. Heather was thinking now, which was more then she was doing before, and it was surprisingly easy for the sage to practically read her thoughts in her drifting eyes. As Heather started pulling herself back together, Calill continued with the second part of her suggestion, "Either way, I think you should ask her to go with you. If she says no, then ask if she knows any young hotbloods who would be up for a bit of adventure. Maybe someone who's upset that they missed the big war, or decided that sanity was over-rated and they liked violence now. You could be picking up someone to watch your back and getting a potential troublemaker off her and Brom's hands at the same time."

That got a laugh out of Heather, "Calill, we're both fighting women, we enjoy violence. And your husband thrives on it! What does that make us?"

"The likes of thee and me are many things, dear. But sane is not one of them. And Largo is a berserker, he's crazy by definition."

As if on command, the large man's voice boomed out from the back, "Do I hear my name being taken in vain?"

Calill called back with a bit of song in her tone, "Just reminding Heather that you're a lunatic, dear."

A heart laugh resounded through the door, "Ah, carry on then!"

Heather had to smile, "You two really are perfect for eachother."

"We are," Calill agreed, then noted, "but we didn't end up together by being shy. Largo could well have decided that a refined, elegant lady such as myself would never be interested in a brutish roughneck. But instead he presented his desires and intentions very directly and look where it got him."

"Alright, alright, you've made your point. I'll talk to her. First stop is to see Nephenee, then I'll head up to Hatari along with whoever I can talk into coming along. And from there..." Heather's voice trailed off as she shrugged and took a long drink of her water.

"Wherever the wind may take you?" Calill suggested.

Putting down her glass, Heather nodded, "That sounds about right, yes."

As the door opened and the dinner crowd started to file in, Calill pulled a key out of her pocket and set it on the bar, "Here, why don't you have some dinner, stay the night, and head out in the morning? It's getting a bit late to travel today anyway."

Unable to resist the return to banter as her spirits bounced back, the beautiful rogue smiled slyly, "Really? Not afraid I'll steal everything you own in the night?"

Calill returned the smile with a grin of her own, "You have a bit more sense of self preservation then that, dear."

"Oh? Remember, I'm a fighting woman, so I'm not sane."

"Being a bit crazy and having a sudden desire to become femme fatale en flambe are two entirely different things, I'm sure."

Heather rolled her eyes and grabbed the key even as she laughed, "I really don't know why I even bother."

But even as she grabbed her bag and made for the stairs, Calill's voice came from behind with the parting shot, "It's like verbal chess, dear. You only get better when you take on superior players."

Author's Footnote: Forgot to mention this above, but just a random thing about my style(and that of many others, I'm sure). Random sentences in Italics that aren't in quotation marks are thoughts of the character. Such as the "Is that what I really want?" line(only without the quotation marks!). I could use asterisks or double-colons or something, but they just seem clunky and Italics is how I've always done it. Of course if you've read Sword and Shadow before then you already knew that, but just in case you haven't, well, you know now!

As always, please review if you have the time, it's always fun to read comments on one's work.