"Marth?" I nearly jumped out of my skin at Lucina's voice.
"Yes?" I asked, shifting my focus to Lucina. Her eyes gleamed with a hidden mirth, although I felt less utterly exposed than when gazed upon by Morgan and Robin.
"You seemed a bit out of it." She shrugged. "Figured you needed to be distracted from something."
I gave a weak smile, pushing myself upright, using the tree for leverage. "Sure. I gather you have something in mind." Lucina, although with a lot of shades of me, had obviously picked up some of Robin's traits, including almost always having a plan.
"Of course." She motioned for me to follow, in the direction of the sparing fields.
As we walked, it became relatively obvious what Lucina wanted. Although we had spared on occasion, I had not been in top form at that point, and we both knew it. Of the two, Lucina was better than Robin by a slim margin, and I knew she took great pride in that distinction.
Stopping in the middle of the fields, Lucina turned to face me, drawing her Falchion. The Divine Blade was perfectly identical to my own, with its pristine untainted edge, a dull gleam no matter the time, and unerring balance.
I matched her motion, fluid and precise, so similar and so different from my own. Drawing my own blade, I faced her, considering.
Our eyes met, and both of us slid into a relaxed stance, our Divine Weapons tight to our bodies.
For a moment nothing moved, before I sprang forwards. I knew Lucina's patterns well, and started with a sharp feint towards her knees. As I expected she jumped back, and I pressed my attack, spinning into a strike at her relatively unprotected right shoulder.
Without even pausing, she slid around my blow, and lashed out. I ducked, finding myself on the defensive, and Lucina pressed forward, her blade whirling into a storm of steel that forced me backwards.
Despite our appearance and weapons, our fighting styles were very different. Lucina was a constant press of offense, never giving one a moment to rest, while I preferred a more methodical fighting style, balancing my attacks with my ability to hold the line against foes such as Lucina.
Ducking under a blow, I tried to punch her in the chest, forcing her to break her rhythm. That, in my experience was the only way to have a chance of beating her, and was why Robin could do so well. As Lucina landed from her jump, I lunged, sweeping a blow to her knees upwards, and back down at her shoulders. The first, she avoided, the second actually clashed against her Falchion in a shower of sparks.
I disengaged at once, regarding Lucina warily. She was, even now, every bit my equal, or even better at the art of swordplay.
"I would hate to cross blades with you in a duel to the death." Lucina murmured, her eyes narrow. "You are a unique." I frowned, unsure what to make of that.
"What do you mean?" I made a probing strike, and Lucina casually swatted them aside, but did not press.
"In my experience, there are very few people on the same level as Robin and I. Father, Morgan, and maybe Severa. Even Lon'qu cannot keep up with us in recent days." I nodded a bit, turning a lazy strike aside, and lashing out in response, but Lucina had already danced away.
"That hardly makes me unique." I challenged. Lucina just laughed.
"To the contrary." She attacked again, her relentless offense pushing me back, and I had to perform a few acrobatic feats to avoid some of her more creative attacks. "That makes you quite unique." Our blades clashed as I was finally forced to directly block a strike. "I have been fighting since I was a child, and been in situations that might kill me since I was twelve." Her eyes were hard for a moment as we separated, putting some distance between us. "That you can hold your own against me is a miracle Marth." She attacked again, faster and faster, her Falchion a streak of white as I fought back desperately.
Lucina was gaining ground, slowly, and I knew it. So did she. Twisting around one of her blows, I flipped my sword into a reverse grip, and blocked another strike head one, sliding her blade down the length of my own, before throwing a sloppy punch towards her face. Lucina shifted, managing to glance the blow off her shoulder, but it made her stumble back enough for me to disengage, and gather my wits.
"I'm hardly holding my own." I pointed out, panting hard. Not since the wars had I been so hard pressed against anyone, and this was only a spar. Fighting Lucina to the death sounded terrifying.
Her eyes gleamed. "Yes you are." She stepped back, her stance loose. "I'm not holding back against you Marth. At all." Lucina's eyes gleamed. I blinked.
"Oh." I mumbled, unsure what to make of that. In truth, I had lost the ability to hold back against Lucina as I got pressed harder and harder, but none the less the realization that I had pushed Lucina as hard as she could go was impressive.
"Oh." This time, she smirked. "I have to admit, it's been a while since I've seen someone with that sort of facial expression." She moved forwards again, this time, at a more relaxed pace. I matched it, and this time, we traded blows more reasonably.
"What facial expression?" I asked her, ducking under a blow, and striking towards her knees.
"An expression that conveys an equal parts, confusion, happiness, befuddlement, and just being utterly lost." She chuckled a bit. "Last time was Robin actually."
"Oh? What did you do to Robin?" I asked, finding myself curious. Robin and Lucina were a strange pair, I thought, so the odds of Lucina totally baffling Robin were probably fairly high.
"Well, the first time, it was the first time I kissed her." Lucina grinned, pressing forwards, and I stumbled, however I recovered well, rolling away from a follow up blow.
"What?" I had never heard much about their relationship, although Robin got a great deal of grief over it. Lucina grinned, pressing her advantage.
"The first time I kissed her, Robin just sort of sat around for almost two days with an expression much like you had." Lucina admitted. "Then she called me five different varieties of a bitch."
I ducked under her sword, and gave her a shove in the chest, causing her to stumble. "Sounds about like my reaction the first time the woman I eventually married kissed me." I admitted, not even thinking about the words. "At least if my companions are to be believed." Lucina twirled under my overhead stroke, and punched me in the chest, knocking me back.
"She sounds like quite the woman." Lucina replied as she landed smoothly, having used me as a bit of a springboard. I nodded.
"She was indeed." I pressed an attack, a more lazy display than any serious spar. "Sort of reminds me of your mother, in a sense." I admitted. "Not so prone to tripping over her own footwear, but sometimes I see shades of her in Sumia."
Lucina started another exchange, her eyes gleaming with the half-light of setting sun.
"She was always looking out for me." I was sort of speaking without realizing. "And kept me grounded during the war." There was a bit of a sad smile on Lucina's face, and I went on. "We were married in the months after the second war, and I guess we tried so hard to ignore what was happening…." I trailed off.
"There is no shame in that." Lucina pointed out, blocking a blow to her knees, and swinging at my chest. "You had won your war, it was time for you to rest. No one would expect you to be alert for more dangers."
I gave a sad smile of my own, performing an elaborate and ridiculous move to strike at her neck. Lucina parried with ease.
"But I still should have been." I paused in my speech to trade a few blows. "It wasn't until after, that I found out the truth." My heart twisted at this point, as the memories flooded back. "We thought it was sickness, at first, and it made sense. She was never frail, but at the same time, illness would linger with her, so we thought nothing of it. Until…" I trailed off. Lucina traded a few blows, before I went on. "It was, ironically enough, Catria who found out, if a bit by accident. It wasn't illness as we thought, but poison. According to the healers, a remarkably advanced poison the like they hadn't seen until that point." I twisted around a blow from Lucina. "My wife did not die from sickness Lucina, my wife was murdered. And I murdered her killer."
"What the bloody hell happened to the two of you!" It was Chrom who made the exclamation as Lucina and I arrived at the evening meal. From the far side of the room, I swore I saw Robin grin and nod in Lucina's direction.
"Sparring." Lucina replied without missing a beat. I had to hold in a laugh at the incredulous expressions of almost everyone. Morgan however just seemed disappointed.
"Lucina!" The young woman threw her hands up. "We agreed that your idea of sparring is too insane for anyone but Mother!" Even more incredulous looks were exchanged.
"You are alive?" the soft tones of Lon'qu's voice came from the crowd. "How? Her version of sparring is a death sentence!" The swordsman shook his head.
"Morgan, be quiet a moment." Lucina commanded, and, as always Morgan stopped. I found it odd how Chrom was the Exalt, but the younger members of the group deferred to Lucina and Morgan before anyone else. "First, we weren't sparring as I see it. And second, you were the only one who agreed that."
"Given the state of the man, I would argue that you still went overkill." Chrom jumped in.
"I would point out Lucina is in as bad of shape, so Marth obviously did fine." Robin cut in, her tone a bit sharp. "Now, can we eat? This is the first time I've emerged from my office today, and I want food."
The seemed to quell the discussion for the moment. As we sat down, Tiki dropped down opposite Lucina. I suppressed the urge to flush as I remembered her lips brushing against mine, and the fact that the position she had been sitting in had given me an excellent view down her tunic, which I suspected was intentional.
"Is there a reason you were trying to kill Marth?" her tone was mostly teasing, despite her words. Lucina shrugged.
"He's alive, so I obviously wasn't trying to kill him, was I?" She returned. I snorted.
"It would take a lot more than you to kill me." I offered. My words sounded a bit forced, but none the less, had the desired effect of making both of them chuckle.
I survived the meal without incident, and slipped away as it was winding down. The enormity of what I had told Lucina was finally settling on my shoulders, and I wanted some space from people.
The roof had become my normal night-time haunt, and I settled into my normal spot, leaving Falchion sheathed. I didn't want the light this time. I wanted the darkness to wrap me up, and hide me from the world.
My rage was white hot, pulsing through my veins on the wings of adrenaline, making my hands shake. Catria's eyes were wide, as she met mine.
"Marth?" Her tone was afraid, and I made an effort to pull my fury back. "Marth?"
I shook my head. "Who was it Catria? What was the bastard's name?" She shivered, backing up a step.
But she told me. It had been three days since the funeral, and my emotions still ran wild, and I reached on instinct, grasping the hilt of Falchion. The slightly rough surface of the hilt was comforting in my hand, as I stood.
"Catria, tell the guard I want them to assemble in the throne room." I ordered, starting from the room.
The short walk from my room to the throne seemed to drag on an on, as my blood pounded in my veins. The evidence Catria had given me was ironclad, there was no disputing it.
"Prince Marth!" The Captain of the Guard saluted me as I entered. "Lady Catria says you want to us to assemble." I nodded sharply.
"Yes." I closed my eyes, wanting very much too just go and kill the bastard, but I would at least do things the right way. "Lady Catria will take you to the man who I want brought to me. At once."
The men nodded, and carried out my ordered with incredible haste, and within the hour, the traitorous lord was on his knees before me, bleeding from a blow to the head, and a stab in the shoulder.
I felt no pity for him though, and I didn't offer him a healer, as I might other prisoners. This slime didn't deserve it.
I presented him with the evidence, and, under witness of the Captain of my guard, Catria, and Jaegan, who appeared, watching and looking disappointed in the distance, dragged the scum out into the yard, and struck his head from his shoulders, without so much as a warning.
Now, I lay on the roof, weeping hot tears, as the memories of the shock and terror in that man's eyes in the instant before my blade removed his head played over and over.
For once, no one visited me on the roof that night, and I found myself grateful for that.
I'm reasonably sure I did not hide the fact I didn't sleep that night well, but no one commented, Robin just gave me one of those looks that told me that she knew. None of the others made any sort of suggestion they noticed.
They all, however were surprised when I joined them on the sparring fields, after my, well brawl, with Lucina. I just shrugged, and took great pleasure in swindling several people who approached me for bets out of money on Robin and Lucina sparring.
Robin, rather unusually, won three of three with Lucina, but as I watched, I realized I had pushed Lucina harder than I had thought. She actually favored her weaker side, and even fought weak handed, although that did not slow her down a bit. Her body was obviously tired, and that was what got her, her slightly slowed reactions resulting in Robin getting the victory over and over.
Chrom thought it was hilarious. Tiki even gave a small giggle as I got called a cheating prick after the third time I won.
I just shrugged, and told people to pay more attention.
"Marth!" Severa came stalking over to me, her eyes gleaming with the sort of competitive fire that tended to get people in trouble. "You, spar, me!"
I rolled my eyes. "Severa, Lucina and I spent yesterday evening beating each other senseless. I don't need a repeat."
Some chuckles came from the crowd. The girl rolled her eyes. "Fine." She didn't seem to upset though. "I'll kick your ass another day."
"In your dreams." I shot back, feeling a bit more amused.
As the day drug on, I found myself drifting through the castle a bit aimlessly. The Shepherds, having had their fill of beating each other to pieces, had drifted off to various things, or to spend some alone time, as the case was, and I had simply drifted about the castle.
For some reason, I found myself in the courtyards, where Tiki was sitting in an almost meditative pose.
For a moment I just considered how the little manakete I had known so long ago had turned into arguably the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. That title, I knew had evolved a bit over the course of my life.
Contrary to popular belief in the army, I wasn't totally oblivious to the feelings of others towards me. I knew Catria had feelings for me, but by that time, I was already on my way to in love with the woman I married, who at the time was the most beautiful woman I had ever met.
I had to admit that Robin, the one time I had seen her without her cloak and armor, so you could, well actually see her, was quite attractive, in a way very similar to Tiki, and her almost inhuman beauty. Robin, for her part, seemed like an almost pale comparison to Tiki.
It was at that moment I realized that the way Tiki was sitting had pulled the leather of her tunic taut in ways that only accentuated her figured.
I stomped on those thoughts at once.
"Hello Marth." Tiki opened her eyes, giving me a bright smile. I returned it weakly, feeling my thoughts clash with themselves. "What brings you here?"
I shrugged a bit. "Lost in my thoughts, I suppose." There was a silence between us, one that felt mostly comfortable. "And my regrets I suppose."
Tiki made a low hum, that didn't seem to account for much of anything. "We all have our regrets Marth, and there isn't nothing gained by wallowing in them." She pointed out, and I felt as though I was giving myself my own advice.
"I know." I replied. "I know quite well." There was another pause. "Some are fresher than others however." There was a long pause, but Tiki didn't press, and I found myself sitting against a nearby tree, watching as Tiki fell back into that meditative trance.
My thoughts, in turn drifted again.
My strange, memory/dream that had come to me from nowhere the other day weighed heavily on my mind. I knew she wouldn't want me to wallow in my sorrows, but at the same time, I recoiled at the idea of depending on anyone else again.
None the less, I felt relaxed around Tiki, and she had….Naga damn it all why had she done that? I'm reasonable sure I was turning an unflattering shade of red at the thought, and thus I tried to shift my thoughts away.
Although I had a loving family growing up, I was always very consciously aware of the vast divide between me, and the average person, and that many nobles ended up in marriages for the political gain of their parents. So, growing up, as I got older, I never really gave much credence to the idea that I would end up marrying for love.
Thus, I perhaps seemed a bit dense to woman's affections, but in truth, I had just developed a wall to insulate myself from growing feelings for someone, only to be dragged off for political gain.
That, however, changed, albeit slowly, over time when I first met Caeda. At first, I rationalized my feelings as just, it would be good to marry her, a good alliance and all those fine phrases, that now as much as ever left me with a bitter taste.
That all came crashing down, however the first time we had an argument, about what, I could not say. Granted, the realization that I had actual feelings for her pretty much reduced me to a mess for a few hours.
Admitting I had fallen in love with her, and deciding that, not only did I love Caeda, but propriety and usual noblemen's nonsense be damned, I was going to marry her had in a sense been the most liberating things I had ever done. Someone had pointed out that in the battle the next day, it had been as though I was a changed man. I seemed to recall making a witty remark that probably didn't matter now.
And then, she died. No, not died. She was murdered. And then, in a fit of purest fury, I had murdered her killer.
I could feel myself starting to cry, no matter how hard I fought against it. Loss was something that I had run out of tears for, sometime in the week after Caedea's death. I had just become cold, even colder than I normally felt.
My guilt at how I had acted however, weighted upon me, and as I slowly came to terms with the loss, started to become overwhelming. The fact that my companions all seemed to miss the fact I hadn't really done anything better than that slime had done didn't help.
A pair of warm arms wrapped around me, and as the memory of Caeda doing the same during some of the darker moments of the war surfaced again, my tears started to fall again.
Time continued to pass, and I continued to get the occasional strange look from Robin, and Lucina continued to get yelled at by Chrom over our occasional sparring matches, which, must like Lucina and Robin's spars, or Chrom and Robin's spars, had become something of a fixture. Robin took great delight in winning the bets over said spars.
Although I had originally gotten the impression Tiki was only visiting, she stayed, and I often found myself spending time around the Manakete, which drew a sort of knowing smile from Morgan that made me shiver a bit.
"Marth! Marth!" Cynthia was the one who came running down the halls and shattering my thoughts today, an occurrence that was becoming surprisingly common, and I was more and more comfortable with.
"Yes?" Chrom's more excitable daughter was panting hard, apparently having been running quite some distance.
"Lucina wants to see you." She replied, after catching her breath. "She seemed super serious too." That last part made me frown.
Lucina was a serous person by default, but I had not seen her exceptionally unsettled in quite some time. For Lucina to be 'super serious' according to the usually light hearted Cynthia, was worrying. "I'll go find her then." I replied, deciding that being serious was probably the better part of valor.
"She's in the throne room." Cynthia replied. "I've got to go find the others now!" She added, scampering off. I frowned, watching her leave.
Taking a moment to think, I started running toward the throne room. The guards and servants around the castle seemed relaxed, so I had to wonder what was up.
As I arrived in the room, the Shepherds were all assembled, with Lucina and Robin at the front of the group, Robin's arm around Lucina's shoulders, and a thoroughly contented expression on the tacticians face. As I entered, I was waved up towards the front of the crowd.
"Marth." Robin smiled, without any of the usual undertones of her plans or thinking that seemed to occasionally suffuse the woman.
I took a brief second to consider, before offering them both an honest smile of my own. "So which one of you two finally got around to it?" I asked. There were some chuckles from the crowd, and both women turned red.
"I told you, everyone knew it was coming." Chrom sounded amused. "Took a bit of the wind out of my fatherly sails, being unable to chew her future husband out, you know."
Robin gave Chrom a long stare, before shaking her head. "Chrom." It was a chiding remark, and seemed to communicate much more than his name. The man shrugged, utterly shameless.
"If my father is done trying to intimidate Robin, and failing?" Lucina cut in smoothly, her eyes gleaming with amusement. More chuckles came from the crowd. "As I gather everyone had figured out, yes, Robin and I are going to be married."
The whole room erupted with noise, cheers and congratulations from the crowd becoming rapidly deafening. Robin raised her left hand, magic rippling, and the entire room was instantly quiet.
"Thank you. I prefer my hearing to remain intact." She announced to more general chuckles.
The rest of that afternoon passed in a whirl, as everyone wanted to speak with the two. I slipped away from the crowd after a while, preferring to watch from the sidelines, and try not to be reminded of things.
"What's on your mind?" Tiki slipped from the shadows of the room. I shrugged.
"Just memories." I replied. Tiki gave a bit of a nod. "They all remind me so much of our old companions." Tiki smiled a bit.
"Have they told you they would like you to marry them?" She asked. I shook my head. That was news to me. Tiki nodded a bit. "Robin mentioned it to me last night…" There was a pause. "I don't think anyone would admit it, but that Robin was the one to propose surprised them."
I considered that for a moment, before shaking my head. "That is why you're here isn't it? Because Robin told you she was planning this?" That made Tiki smile a bit.
"Well, I suspect that was her ultimate motive yes. Not that you would be able to get Robin to admit it." I nodded a bit. That was true. Robin would never admit to having planned something that far in advance, but it was reasonable that she had. "She does seem to have assembled everyone, even those of us who were off the continent." There was a pause as Tiki shrugged a bit. "There are occasions when you really see why Robin won the war appear in day to day life, and then there are the times when she pulls something like this off."
I arched an eyebrow. Tiki didn't reminisce very often, or make comments of that nature without reason. Having lived for years longer than the entire population of the castle combined Tiki had a tendency to simple make secretive little smiles, or shake her head.
"Yes. I suspect even Morgan doesn't know her mother's entire plan." I snorted. That was doubtful. Morgan probably helped her set it up.
"And what do you suppose is Robin's master plan?" I challenged.
Tiki smiled a bit. "Although she does not show it often, you are probably the single greatest inspiration for Lucina. She has a great deal of respect for you Marth, so my guess is, that Robin basically had this entire plan laid from the moment she concluded that you were, in fact, Marth."
That did sound like Robin. "They want me to marry them then. You weren't joking." I circled back to the point Tiki had brought up originally. The manakete nodded a bit.
"Oh yes. Robin mentioned as much to me a few days ago, that she suspected that Lucina would appreciate it, and asked if I would talk to you about it, should it come up." She rolled her eyes. "As if that would come up in random conversation." I shrugged. "My guess is then, that they shall ask you shortly." I nodded a bit.
True to Tiki's word, the pair of them were moving towards us, as everyone had finally given them some space. Lucina seemed quite happy, and even Robin seemed much tense than usual.
"Congratulations, you two." I gave them a bit of a smile, which was returned by both women, and even reached Robin's eyes. "Tiki tells me you have a question?" Robin gave a small eye roll, but nodded none the less.
I think Tiki was the only one who realized that the smile I wore the rest of the day was a just a bit forced, and I was feigning happiness, albeit very well. Robin was much less of her cold calculating self, or at least was ignoring her prodigious ability to know literally everything around her. I did not begrudge her that however, as it was refreshing to see Robin in a manner that was no serious, as well as it was a day that anyone could be forgiven for being a bit out of touch with the world around them.
As the day wound down, I slipped away from the party that obviously was not winding down any time soon. Although I made sure that no one saw me, I swore someone followed me as I slipped up to my room, and true to my thoughts within minutes of closing the door there was a knock.
"Come in." There wasn't much to consider about who was knocking. Only four people ever knocked on my door, and two of them were quite distracted by other things, and the third was preoccupied trying, I suspected to get blackmail material.
The final person slipped in through the door, her expression relatively serene. "Are you alright?"
I gave a small smile. "I'm fine." I replied. "Just a bit over whelmed." To my own surprise, I found I wasn't particularly lying about that. Although I still felt empty, what had been a gaping void had shrunk to something more akin to just loneliness, and even that was passing.
Tiki nodded a bit, giving me a small smile. It was odd, how the manakete had wormed her way into what had become my life. Less than a year had passed since I woke up, in a field, with no idea how I got there, still mourning the death of my wife, and my own actions resulting from it.
Never mind the fact that Tiki had been around less time than that. Granted, we had known each other in the extremely distant past, but none the less, we both had changed in those years. Tiki had lost some of her childlike innocence, and I was far more tired and bitter than I had been back then.
"I'm glad." There was a pause, and a certain tension in the air for a moment. "I-"
Before she went on, I cut her off. "You don't have to apologize for caring Tiki." My tone was soft, and I turned away, glancing out the window towards the setting sun. Again, a silence stretched, before Tiki moved to stand beside me, her steps almost inaudible.
"The last time I watched a sunset was the night after Robin died." Tiki's voice was distant, a tone I recognized from using it myself on occasion. "And it was when I realized that Robin had known what was going to happen all along." There was a pause. "Looking back, the way she was before that battle reminded me a lot of you."
"Of me?" I felt a bit confused. I was used to the comparisons between Lucina and I, which I could understand. It was harder to see the comparison between Robin and me however.
"Yes. She was almost to calm about what was happening, in much the same way you were." There was a pause. "At the time, I didn't realize, but you had accepted the reality that you might die fighting against Medeus, and had made you peace with that fact." I gave a bit of a nod, that much was true. "Robin, when we teleported atop Grima's back to kill him, was far too cold, conveying this sort of determination that none of us understood, except perhaps Lucina."
That, I thought, did sound like me. Caeda had known I didn't really expect to live that final battle out, and when I had survived, had screamed herself hoarse at me, before breaking down crying.
"When Robin told Naga to get us out…" Tiki leaned against my shoulder. "There was a moment when Lucina caught her gaze and I could have sworn she broke inside."
I winced a bit. That was something I did have experience with, especially in the first war, as something similar had happened, and I knew, was how Caeda had figured out I didn't really expect to live out the day. "I'm going to guess however Robin survived, or revived, Lucina was less than amused?"
Tiki gave a bit of a snort. "It supposedly took Lissa the better portion of a week to bring Robin out of her coma, and that is considering that Fell Magic does try and protect Robin." Was the immediate reply.
"Oh." And we were silent again.
That silence stretched on for a while, relatively comfortable, as the sun continued its long descent.
"Thank you." I murmured at last. Tiki almost jumped beside me. She shifted from leaning against my shoulder, to meet my eyes, for a moment, before just smiling.
"You're welcome." Her arms wrapped around me, pulling me into a hug. For the first time in a while, I returned the gesture, reveling it the warmth radiating from her.
When I woke up the next morning, I found myself unable to move. Cracking my eyes open, I was surprised when my vision was obscured by a mass of very familiar green.
Tiki's was curled against my side, her head resting in the middle of my chest, and her hair obscuring my vision.
For a moment, I had a feeling of irrational panic, before a long honed thought process took off. It took me a brief moment to categorize my thoughts, and break down my panic, and shove it off into the far corners of my mind.
"Marth?" Tiki's voice was rather sleepy, and she shifted a bit. "Your heart rate just spiked." There was a pause. "And dropped again just as fast."
I gave a bit of a chuckle. "Old, bad habit." I replied, before elaborating a bit. "A mental exercise that lets me keep my emotions in check in battle." Tiki didn't answer for a long time.
"Only you Marth, only you." She murmured, then fell silent. One of her hands moved, coming to rest over my own. For a time, we stayed like that, before Tiki shifted a bit more, sitting up slowly.
I realized with a bit of surprise that her hair was not in its usual arrangement, instead just falling down around her face. I must have been surprised, for Tiki gave me a question look, and I shook my head a bit.
"Someone awake in there?" Severa's voice drifted from the door. "We're headed out to the sparring fields if you want to join!" There was the sound of footsteps as she headed off.
"As brusque as ever." Tiki shook head a bit, as I sat up.
"It's her way of trying to get even with me for beating her in spars routinely." I shrugged a bit. "She's been wanting to have a shot at a spar with me for a while, and I promised her a spar today." Tiki's lips quirked in amusement.
"Then you probably shouldn't keep her waiting?" She pointed out, standing up, and rolling her shoulders a bit.
With a chuckle, I stood, wincing as my joints protested a bit. "Probably, although I suspect I'm going to want armor, as Severa is quite skilled." I paused a moment. "Well, she isn't as bad as Lucina is."
That drew a laugh from Tiki, who shook her head. "I am woefully inexperienced in swordsmanship, but Lucina is quite terrifying to behold."
As we started down the halls of the castle, I shook my head a bit. "Lucina isn't really all the terrifying, once you realize that she fights by means of a relentless assault, never giving you a chance to attack her. Her offense is broken, it's much easier to stay on an even footing with her."
"You make that sound so easy Marth." It was Cynthia who seemed unusually bouncy. "I've been telling Severa that for years, and it hasn't gotten her anywhere." There was a pause, then a shrewd gaze. "You seem quite happy today."
Lucina's little sister was, despite her personality remarkably perceptive sometimes, and in this instance that was less than helpful.
"Yes." I didn't elaborate, but apparently, I didn't have to, as Cynthia gave a delighted squeal, and scampered off. Taking a sidelong glance at Tiki, it wasn't hard to realize that she was as confused as I.
Our arrival on the fields was heralded by an impatient Severa, who was standing in the center, with her sword already drawn.
"Hurry up, you lazy bum!" She shouted. "You owe me!" Shaking my head in parts of exasperation and parts amusement, I drew Falchion, and moved out onto the field.
"As you wish." I took my stance, waiting. The crowds, as always started gathered, eager to see the results of my latest spar. I was reasonable sure Robin was taking bets already on how fast I'd win.
With a shout, Severa charged, and I settled my mindset for a spar, and lept to meet her. Our blades clashed in a hail of sparks.
Less than a minute later, I stood over Severa, my sword pressed to her collar bone. "You lose." I informed her dryly. She glared a bit at me.
"Bite me." She glared a bit. "Cheating bastard." There wasn't any heat in her words. "And cheating Divine Sword."
"Just admit you suck!" Cynthia's voice drifted from the crowd, to general laughter. Severa rolled her eyes, as I stepped back and helped her to her feet.
"I'd like to see you do any better!" She shot back, and the laughing only increased. Over the heads of the crowd, I swore I saw Robin frown a bit, before our eyes locked. There was a degree of amusement in her gaze, as always, but also Robin seemed unusually unsure, although I had to look hard to see.
"So this is where you disappear to." Robin stepped into the circle of light that Falchion gave off. I arched an eyebrow, finding it highly unlikely that she didn't know where I disappeared off to at nights. "Contrary to the belief I foster, I don't actually know everything that goes on around me."
I chuckled a bit. Logic dictated that Robin couldn't pull off such a feat, she had mastered the art of seeming to have, and reading people so well that she was able to project an air of omnipotence that was hard to shake. "None the less, I find it hard to believe that you truly were that ignorant of where I hid at night."
Robin shrugged, sitting down opposite me. "I never had a reason to go hunting for your nighttime haunts." A ghost of a smile crossed her face. "Besides that, you managed to solve that mess between Cynthia and Severa more effectively than any of us were able to conceive of." There was a pause. "And much faster as well." She sighed a bit. "I know I've said this before, you confused me a lot when you first arrived. There are few times that I find myself so quite lost, yet I have never been more lost." There was a pause. "I haven't seen Tiki quite as happy as she has been lately either."
There was an unusual lack of subtlety in Robin's approach, I noted, with absent surprise. Perhaps I was simply reading too much into her words.
"In an odd sense it feels good to know that I have at least some connection to what was my life." I admitted, trying not to give anything away to Robin. It wasn't a game between us exactly, but it was always interesting to see how much the woman picked up.
Robin hummed in agreement. "What do you know of the day I died Marth?" Robin's tone was soft, and the words coming slow, as if she wasn't sure how to proceed. I frowned. Robin was always the most reclusive about her time in the war, often drifting from the room when the topic came up.
"Not much. Tiki said a bit about it last night. Why?" I asked, meeting the tactician's eyes.
Robin nodded slightly. "It would take me days to explain everything leading up to that day, but the summation was, we had two choices. I could die, and Grima with me, or Grima could simply be sealed."
I hissed through my teeth. That sort of decision was never easy.
"The others I think, never even considered the first option. Lucina and Chrom in particular, discounted it at once." And Robin, I knew, would not have discounted that option. Suddenly, some of Tiki's words from the previous night made much more sense. Robin had gone into that battle planning to die, I realized, with a grimace. "I see you understand."
"Your life is a small sacrifice to give, if the return is that your children never have to worry about such a monster again." Although not exactly in the same situation, it was how I had justified by willingness to die in the final duels with Medeus.
"Exactly." Robin's lips thinned a bit more. "I think, in a sense, Naga took a perverse pleasure in that fact, knowing it I would die. She made no secret that she less than approved of my relationship with Lucina." There was a pause, and I felt like Robin wanted to say more. "I think it didn't help, retrospectively, that I was sort of lying to myself about those same feelings." There was another pause. "When fought, Lucina and I, side by side for the better part of an hour to get to Grima, before the fight with him."
I winced. An hour of constant combat was brutal, even more with a death sentence.
"Naga, I think knew when the game was up for Grima, because I only had to ask before she got everyone out. And stole my cloak." Robin sighed a bit, looking down. "The truth of the matter, Marth, is not that I died." She whispered. "I killed myself. Turned Grima's magic against him, and blew us both out of existence."
I shivered. Goddess, the calm way she talked about it….
"As it stands, I have no idea how I came back, only that there are something things that will really make you realize just how stupid you actually are. And how much you screwed up."
I frowned, processing Robin's words easily. There was a hidden message there, somewhere, the question only was, what it was, and how deep did I have to look for it.
"When I did return, Lucina proceed to put me in a coma for a week." There was a long pause. "Only for Morgan to return me to said coma for a week after that." I chuckled, imaging the usually flighty Morgan attacking her mother in an explosion of spell fire and destruction.
However, something made me pause at that. Robin was not the sort of person to idly tell stories either. There was a point to what she was saying, the question was what?
"I admit, I was not aware it was possible to both kiss someone, and beat them within an inch of their life." Robin mused. "However, Lucina proved herself quite skilled in that regard." With a snort, I considered Robin for a moment. Her face was earnest, another oddity for her, as well as the unusual passion in her eyes.
An inkling of what I was supposed to glean from this situation started to form, but I held my tongue, waiting for Robin to finish.
"My reputation of being someone who likes to speak in riddles is not undeserved." Robin said at last. "And I don't usually give advice that isn't solicited. Listen to yourself Marth." With that, she stood, and vanished from the room in a swirl of lightning.
For a long time, I just stood, watching the stars twinkle in the sky, before I stood, slipping through the castle into my room.
Shrugging out of my armor and tunic, Robin's words continued to echo in my ears. Somehow, Robin just sort of knew what my inner conflict was, and how to offer advice that didn't sound like advice.
There was a knock on the door, and I felt my heart jump. "Come in." I called out, wondering who the hell would be knocking on my door at this time of night. Most of the castle knew that I spent the nights atop the castle roof, watching the stars.
Creaking open, the door admitted Tiki into the room. Her posture was unusually tense, and I felt the urge to hug her, although something told me to wait. She came to a stop beside me, leaning against my shoulder. Acting on impulse, I wrapped an arm around her waist.
The next morning, I awoke again with a mess of green obscuring my vision. This time, however, that instinctive flash of panic did not materialize. Tiki was asleep, I knew at once, from the rhythm of her breathing. One of her hands was entwined with my own.
For a long time, I just lay there, considering the events that had led me to this situation. The words Caeda had spoken, when she thought I was asleep, all those years ago. Remember how to fall in love again.
Here I was, thousands of years into my own future, still trying to reconcile my execution of my wife's murder and the death of my wife. I had met people who thought I was someone straight out of a legend, and someone had found myself a life here. A place that, relatively speaking, I could belong, until such time as my years were natural expended.
And, against all odds, someone out of my life had stepped from what should have been the grave, as alive, and whole as ever. Of all the people I might have considered meeting thousands of years in the future, Tiki would not have been that person, despite being the person who such a scenario would have made sense with.
Said woman stirred a bit in her sleep, and I stopped, feeling a bit of a smile cross my face. Tiki had seemingly completed the life had discovered for myself here in this time. Ethereally beautiful, the manakete had surprised me utterly when she stepped out into that courtyard, yet now, I found it hard to conceive of any other outcome.
"What has you thinking?" Tiki's voice was a bit bleary, as she stirred once more.
"You." I admitted freely. Listen to yourself Marth. I could almost feel Tiki's frown of confusion, and she shifted to be able to look at me. The expression was quite endearing, I noted.
"What about me." There was something guarded about her eyes, I noted, feeling a very different sort of twist I my chest. One I hadn't felt in a long time.
"About how good an idea this is." I leaned forward and kissed her.
As I drew back, there was a moment where I suspected I had just fucked up. Tiki's expression remained guarded, her lips parted just a bit, as though from surprise.
My heart was starting to jump a bit when she leaned forwards, and kissed me in return.
The wave of emotions that crashed over me was nearly crippling. Both my arms slid up, pulling Tiki into a tight embrace, as our kiss deepened. When at last she pulled back a bit, her long hair falling down in such a way as to isolate us from the outside world, I decided time was allowed to just stop on the moment forever.
"So…" she seemed to pause a bit. "Where does this leave us then?" In response I kissed her again, trying to convey my answer that way. As we separated, there was a moment's pause, when Tiki seemed to collect herself, and the usually calm and unflappable manakete seemed quite befuddled. "Oh." She mumbled, collapsing against me.
"Oh." I agreed, smiling a bit. That was not the reaction I had expected, but I was not Robin, and filled with the infallible knowledge of how everyone around me worked. Still, I suspected that reaction to be positive.
Even the knock on the door, someone demanding I come eat breakfast didn't dampen my sudden buoyant mood. Leaving Tiki, who had fallen asleep once again to rest, I slipped from the room, trying not to bounce too much.
Last that day, it was Lucina who found me in a corner of the castle library, my nose buried in a book that I wasn't really reading.
"Marth." I jerked, shaken from my thoughts, to stare up and Chrom's daughter. She seemed much less burdened that some days, I noted.
"Yes?" I found myself confused. It was not the day for our usual spars to the death, so I wasn't sure what Lucina might want.
"Thank you." She sat down in a chair opposite me, her gaze intent. This intent gaze however did not leave me feeling vulnerable, or weak, instead, it was just an intense stare from a woman who had earned her place in the world through war.
"Whatever for?" I enquired.
"Being someone Robin will talk to." Lucina paused. "I knew a long time ago that Robin won't tell me some things that go on in her head, some notion of protecting me, or something." Lucina paused. "But I also know those things eat her alive. So, I thank you, Prince Marth, for being there to listen to my fiancé."
I considered how to respond to Lucina's words. It didn't feel right to accept her thanks, when I knew, especially after my conversation last night, that it was thanks I did not deserve.
"I earned no thanks Lucina." I replied at last. She opened her mouth to protest and I cut her off. "Robin is here because of you." Lucina frowned a bit. "I have stood in Robin's shoes, at once point in my life." I told her, finding it much easier to speak candidly than it had been since Caeda passed. "I was fortunate enough to never have to follow through on my resolution. I didn't have to come to the stark and frightening realization that, despite my best intentions, I screwed up."
Lucina's mouth worked but no words came.
I met her gaze with my own intent stare. "Robin is where she is right now Lucina because she fell in love with you." I spoke softly. "And was willing to die for that love." I took a deep shuddering breath, wondering if I was stepping too far. "Don't thank me for something you did Lucina. You are someone that Robin was willing to do the quite literally impossible to protect." I paused. "Give her time. She will tell you about what happened."
There was a long silence, before Lucina stood, and bowed to me. "Thank you, Prince Marth." She repeated her earlier words, and slipped away. I watched her go, hoping I hadn't just messed up totally and completely.
"That was well handled." The melody of Tiki's voice drifted from the shadows, and she stepped out, giving me a bit of a smile. "You seem to have a knack for getting through to people."
I snorted, moving over a bit as she sat down next to me. "Everyone but myself." I pointed out, my expression wry. Tiki smiled a bit.
"I have it on good authority that you can be a bit dense." She leaned against my shoulder, smiling a bit. "And all is forgiven."
I gave a contented sigh, leaning into the manakete's shoulder, feeling the warmth radiating from her. All was well.
AN: This is the conclusion of this story for the moment, although I'm not going to actually mark it as complete, as I intend to add more chapters are time passes, and I'm not consumed with other things... reviews are always appreciated, as are ideas of other things to write!
