Beginning Commentary: WARNING! SHIPS MAY BE APPARENT! If your OTP doesn't make it or is different than mine, don't you complain about it on Tumblr! ('cuz I don't feel like making one just to justify my pairings).
Chapter 2: Shepherds
The adrenaline had worn off once again as every step felt like I were drooping into quicksand. I also felt my eyelids begin to heavily fall, but I only stayed conscious because my eyes stung. Why, I'll never know, but I believe this was a sign that my body was trying to quit on itself. And no sign made it even more apparent than my legs giving out and causing me to fall to the ground.
I heard Tharja and Henry yell for help, but I blacked out soon after.
The blue flames surrounded me once more and soon, Grima's glowing red eyes stared right at me.
What are you doing? he began in an angry tone. Why are you making friends with these children of Naga? Do you not realize the consequences of this?!
I remained silent; feeling foolish for realizing that Grima was right. Absolutely menacing and putrid, but right. For all I knew, my father could and would destroy all the innocent along with the Shepherds just so he could control my life once more. But then I remembered…
"The Risen didn't see me or Tharja and Henry as allies, so it was an act of self-defense," I replied.
Nonsense! You cowered in fear instead of taking control!
"WELL, MAYBE PEOPLE CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT WHEN THEY'RE PUT IN DANGEROUS SITUATIONS!" I yelled.
There was a moment of silence until I saw Grima slither near my side. He could still not be fully seen, but I could see multiple red eyes from his left stare right at me. It seemed as if he began to circle around me.
You've used that excuse before. Many times, in fact. Oh, here we go again. You keep telling yourself that those times were rational for no thought just because you were a child. YOU WERE RAPED! YOUR MOTHER WAS MURDERED RIGHT BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES! YOU. HAVE. NO. EXCUSES. LEFT!
"JUST SHUT UP!" I was on the brink of tears and heaving rather loudly. "I'm horrible at reacting, okay? We can't all be 'perfect' like you are!"
You could if you just gave up your consciousness. Think, child. My superior knowledge and power would be used to its greatest advantage if you-
"-allow myself to basically die whilst you destroy everything in sight?" I interrupted.
Hmph. And yet your snarky remarks seem to fully function in times of danger… Grima sneered. He then returned to his original position of looking down on me.
The flames blinded me once more.
I awoke in a cold sweat and found myself in a small room with three other beds; all completely empty. There was also several shelves that had herbs, books, and bounding tape rest upon them. I remember entering a room like this some times before, but Grima's recent reminder of those events caused a sense of panic to run through my spine. As I held myself, I realized that my robe was missing.
In fact, I was also wearing a new, pale blue gown instead of my usual cream one. This dress was also far too…poofy for me, if I may use layman's terms. I was always one for more simplicity, but frills just seem to annoy me, especially when they get snagged in something that might ruin the outfit entirely.
Anyway, I decided to look around and see what exactly what was going on. As I stepped out, I was greeted to a large hallway of other doors. So, I decided to go the corner and see if there was an alternate solution. Indeed, there was: an entire flight of stairs, to be exact. I walked over to them and realized that these were no ordinary steps; there were candles strapped to the stone walls and the steps seemed to disappear into a corner, probably meaning that they were spiral. I gulped, and decided to at least give this a shot before the multiple doors.
The halls felt like the perfect description of a cave (I've never actually be in one, so I just assume this from stories I've read): cold, empty, and would be pitch black if not for the candles. Maybe even a bit damp, but that was probably just me. As I kept going down the spiral staircase, it soon became brighter. Not necessarily because of the candles, but more among the lines that there was a path of light coming towards me. Or me towards it, I don't know. Eventually, I noticed that the trail of lighted candles ceased and instead were replaced by windows.
"Well, at least I know it's daytime now," I said out loud to myself.
Soon, even the stairs stopped going in a spiral motion and just began to go down in a straight and orderly fashion. As I continued walking, I noticed several people on the bottom floor. They seemed to be fancily dressed aside from the soldiers walking by; what with their frilly dresses and bonnets for the women and frilly suits for men. Were they upper-class?
Eventually, I reached the bottom floor and everyone had become completely silent as they looked at me. Oh Gods, did they know who I was, both Plegian and Grima?
A woman who wore light, seafoam armor then created a gap between the sea of people as two female soldiers followed right behind her. She had a beauty mark on her right cheek (which was very close to her eye now that she came closer), her silver-ish hair in a bun, and red eyes that were similar to Frederick's. (Intimidation wise, not really in the sense of color or shape).
"You are Anne, I presume?" She stated more than asked.
I nodded as if I were a child.
"Come with me. The Exalt wishes to speak with you."
Arguing or running away seemed pointless once more, so I slowly followed her and allowed the two soldiers to walk behind me.
One had very long, very red hair with a silver breastplate and a red and white dress following underneath. She also had two white feather hairpins in her hair; one for each side. By judging the look in her eyes, she seemed to be the more determined out of the two.
The shorter one also had long hair, but it was a nice shade of light brown, almost tan. She had a pink feather accessory stick out from the back, which made wonder why. Her hair didn't seem to be completely decorated aside from a little clip that kept a side part together. The rest of her armor had various shades of pink scattered around with even the ends of her belt shaped like hearts. When she noticed me look back at her, she smiled for a bit. I then turned back to the main soldier in front of me.
"Forgive me for speaking out of turn," I began. "But may I ask who you are?"
"My name is Phila," the silver-haired woman replied. She didn't even look at me to respond. "I am captain of Ylisse's Pegasus knights and Lady Emmeryn's personal guard."
"I see…"
I felt a poke on my shoulder, and turned to the shorter soldier.
"My name is Sumia. It's very nice to meet you," she said kindly.
"Um, I'm Anne, but I think you already knew that," I replied sheepishly.
"Sumia, you should know by now not to socially interact with what could be a criminal," the other soldier said. She then turned to me. "No offense."
"No, I can see where you're coming from, really…"
"She doesn't seem too bad, Cordelia," Sumia replied.
"You can never be too sure," Phila brought up. "Always stay on guard."
Eventually, we stopped before two grand, white doors with hints of gold in them. Phila nodded, and as if by instinct, Sumia and Cordelia (the tall soldier's name) went to the doors to slowly open them. As they opened, I was greeted to a grand hallway of pillars that all led to a throne. A throne currently occupied by a woman with long, golden hair, soft, blue eyes, and a strange mark upon her forehead. It appeared to be a fancy U with a teardrop in it. She had a kind smile, too.
"Your Grace, the last Plegian has awakened," Phila announced. She then walked to the side to show who I was. I almost cowered in fear behind one of the pillars or Phila herself, but that might seem to be like an act of disgrace towards royalty.
"Very good, Phila," the woman cheerfully responded. "You may return to your post now."
Phila saluted, and then headed out. As Cordelia and Sumia were about to head out, Chrom, Lissa, Tharja, and Henry had entered.
"Oh, Captain!" Sumia exclaimed. She seemed to be rather enthusiastic about Chrom, as she had immediately fallen for him. …No, literally; she fell over and face planted into the ground. She didn't even trip on anything!
"Sumia, are you okay?" Lissa sounded both panicked and amused as she picked up Sumia from the ground.
"Is it the boots again?" Chrom asked. Wait, this has happened before?
"No, I mean, yes, I mean…" Sumia stuttered. "Oh, never mind." She then left with an embarrassed look on her face. Poor thing… Cordelia then followed afterwards and Henry and Tharja soon walked up to me.
"Glad to see you're okay," Tharja said with a small smile on her face. She then looked down. "But what's with your outfit?"
I, too, looked down and remembered I was still in my blue poofy dress. With that, I blushed.
"I was too much in a rush to find my robe and usual gown, I guess," I chuckled.
"Is it really ugly?" Henry asked.
"For my tastes, yes."
"Sorry for interrupting, but Emm really wants to talk right now," Lissa butted in.
With that, we all headed down the atmospheric hall of pillars. I saw Frederick standing between two of them along with other soldiers, but he luckily didn't stare down at me once again. At last, we were at the few golden steps that separated us from the exalt and her now-apparent golden throne.
She wore a green and yellow robe that had the Roman numerals wrapped around the collar and had a funny-looking headpiece stick out of the back of her head; probably similar to a crown or tiara in that regard, I suppose. But there was an aura about her that made me feel like she could be trusted.
Chrom and Lissa walked to her sides as Henry, Tharja, and I knelt in front of Lady Emmeryn. (Ha! I remembered her name!)
"So, you are the three who helped save Southtown from a Plegian raid?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Tharja said for me.
"And also helped against a Risen attack in the forest?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Henry said eccentrically. He then raised his head up a bit. "It was one of the greatest moments of my life!"
It looked like Frederick was about to come out of his post and smack Henry on the head, but Emmeryn gave him the look that that wouldn't be allowed.
"I'm glad to see you wanting to help us in any way you can," Emmeryn cheerfully said. "But why are you attacking your own people just for this?"
"Well," I began. "It's kind of a long story, Your Grace."
"I have all the time in the world."
With some hesitation, I began to tell of all the events that led us to this very point:
"It all began back when we were young. I was still coping from my mother's recent passing when Tharja and Henry showed me a book about Valm. It seemed to be like a haven for us, as Plegia seemed to get worse and worse by the year. There were no deserts, no hate-filled overly-religious fathers, and most importantly, no hatred scourged throughout all of the Valmese land. So, we decided that one day, we would run away and live in Valm for the rest of our days.
"We had tried leaving before, but my overbearing father always caught wind of our 'escape plans' and made sure that I never left. He said I was part of a big scheme that would bring peace to the world, so he couldn't lose track of me whatsoever. However, Tharja and Henry stayed behind no matter what."
"We never leave a friend behind, Your Majesty," Tharja stated.
"Ever!" Henry included.
"I see," Emmeryn said to have us understand that she was listening. "Is your father really that terrible?"
"Yes, Your Highness." I wanted to let all my anger and frustration out, but I knew that would just make me seem like a spoiled brat. So, I remained silent.
"Please continue."
"Of course. We had strategically planned what were my father's blind spots so that we could sneak away without a hitch for what seemed like centuries, and our chance finally struck when we received word that his services were needed in the Plegian army."
"So is that why you attack your own men?" Chrom asked.
"Yes, I want to make sure I kill the one soldier that's actually him."
Here, Lady Emmeryn rose from her throne and knelt down in front of my face. She held out her hands and placed them on my cheeks.
"My child, revenge is not the path you should take," she said sorrowfully. "The Plegians fighting us are fueled by revenge, and I do not want the same to happen to you."
"But, he…" I began. "He…"
"He what?"
It was here that I decided to whisper the deeds done to me; not as they weren't confidential, but more embarrassing in front of several male soldiers.
He ordered a man to rape me when I was young; that's why I wanted to leave home immediately.
"Why would he do that?" Emmeryn asked with shock in her face.
I'm sure it has something to do with my birthmark. I then showed her the Grimleal mark on my right hand.
"Grimleal, too?"
I nodded. It has more meaning than you think it does, sadly…
"May I ask why? Or is that too personal?"
I hesitated. Do I really trust this powerful woman with my horrible secret? Was this enough information for her to feel sympathy for me? Or would she think me crazy and send me to some sort of asylum?
It's because… I was born as the new vessel for the Fell Dragon…
By saying this, I thought I dug my own grave. I thought Emmeryn would scream her head off, back away, and order the guards to take me away as far as possible. But instead, she continued asking questions.
"If you had the choice, would you renounce this title?"
I nodded rapidly.
With that, Emmeryn returned to sitting down in the throne. Before she could make a verdict, though, I saw Frederick walk up to the steps and also kneel.
"Forgive me, milady, but she also caused the water supply of Southtown to go bad by 'helping' us," he confessed.
WHY, FREDERICK, WHY!? WE WERE SO CLOSE TO BEING HOME FREE!
"Is this true, Anne?" Emmeryn asked in the same tone.
"Y-yes…" I shamefully admitted. "It was a bad strategy that only fit at that time…"
"Emm, may I speak with you for a moment?" Chrom asked.
"You may."
With that, we were escorted out of the hall. Lissa then walked right next to me.
"I heard everything you said," she said out of nowhere.
"What, how?!" I shouted.
"You really don't know how to whisper quietly."
"Oh no, does that mean-"
"Yep, Chrom knows, too."
Oh great, Chrom's probably discussing my execution now!
"How does this whole thing work? Is Grima sleeping now, or…?"
"It's kind of complicated, but it basically goes like this: he talks to me in my sleep and by what Henry and Tharja have told me, he only lends power when I'm going berserk."
"Whoa, so it's like a cursed superpower?!"
"Well, in layman's terms, yes."
"I'm surprised you've kept him in check for this long!"
"Yeah, me too…"
The doors opened once more and we were allowed back inside. This time, though, Emmeryn said we were fine to just stand normally.
"After some consideration, I've decided that you three must first serve community service," the exalt stated.
The main response that was shared through the room aside from Chrom and Emmeryn was, "WHAT?!"
"As Sir Frederick has stated and despite unintentionally causing this, you have still caused Southtown's water supply to be unusable. So, your sentence is to help serve the Ylissean army for as long as the water is contaminated."
"How long is that, usually, sis?" Lissa asked.
"About two to six months," Frederick replied.
"That long?!" Henry shouted. "But what if her dad finds us before then?!"
"The Shepherds have given their word to help the innocent," Chrom said. "And we'll make sure we keep that promise while you fight for us."
There was a small pause.
"…Come again?" Tharja said.
"Yes, your community service will be served by fighting with Chrom's division of the army, the Shepherds," Emmeryn said.
I felt my mouth nearly drop the ground when she announced this, but then I realized to close it immediately so that I didn't seem rude.
"And then, once the water is fully purified, I will arrange for you three to make residence in a small country in Valm known as Chon'sin."
"Your grace, I don't mean to cast false judgment upon you, but are you sure this is wise? I'm the prime target that'll get everyone killed!" I stated. This would either be because of Validar or Grima. Or worse, the others losing trust in me.
"Do not worry, I'll make sure you and your friends are protected at all times," Emmeryn replied cheerfully. My statement seemed to fly right over her.
"Well, in that case, we should probably introduce you to the other Shepherds!" Lissa exclaimed.
"This quickly?!"
"I don't see why not!"
Lissa then grabbed my hand and began tugging me to another place. Henry, Tharja, Chrom, and Frederick followed afterward.
"Guys, are you sure you want to live through with this?" I asked my two companions.
"No, but we don't really have a choice," Henry said.
"Yeah, what with your whole loyalty statement and all that," Tharja sneered.
"Sorry, I thought I could play the sympathy card with that…"
With that, I had finally figured out that we were in a castle. (Yes, I'm that slow, but give me a break, a lot happened!) My inner child was screaming with joy and amusement, seeing as how the ones I've read in books were always very elegant and filled with riches. And while I had my expectations way too high, I still felt entranced by the castle courtyard and the other halls that we could walk to.
Eventually, we had reached a small area behind the castle itself. It seemed to be like a miniature community with separate buildings and such, which I found strange since they were essentially part of the Royal Army. Wouldn't they have a much fancier appearance?
"We're here! The main gathering hall for the Shepherds!" Lissa exclaimed. She then let go of my hand and opened the door to the building right in front of her. Well, it was the biggest building, so it would naturally make sense that it was the headquarters. She then announced, "We're back, everyone!"
Soon, a girl with several ribbons (both in her hair and on her pink and white dress), a white parasol (which I remember because my mother told me it was a fancy umbrella and then told me what exactly an umbrella was), and very dressed-up blonde hair rushed toward Lissa and embraced her as if she were a constrictor.
"Oh, Lissa, my darling! Do you realize how worried I was?!" the girl exclaimed. "You were gone for much longer than expected and I had assumed the worst!"
"Calm down, Maribelle, I'm fine," Lissa gasped. She then escaped the girl's hug. "We just had some bumps in the road, but we're all good."
"'All good'?! There are two Plegians right behind you!" Maribelle (ugh, that name just leaves a bad taste in my mouth) then closed her parasol and started thrusting it at Tharja and Henry.
"Three, actually," Lissa chuckled. She pointed to me.
"Oh, thought you could disguise yourself as one of us, could you?!" She then held the point of her parasol right in front of me. I thought it was a bit silly because I was only a few inches taller than her.
"Calm down, Maribelle. They're our new recruits!"
"Lissa, you must be hysterical."
"No, they really are," Chrom laughed. Maribelle then looked to Frederick and he nodded.
"Oh, very well." She put away her parasol and curtseyed. "Forgive my behavior, I'm just very overprotective. I am daughter to the Duke of Themis, Maribelle."
"And I am daughter to the religious ass of Plegia, Anne," I said jokingly as I bowed like a man would. Henry and I snickered, but it appeared Maribelle wasn't one for jokes. "Sorry."
"No need," Maribelle responded snobbishly.
"I am son to I-don't-know-who-my-parents-are of Plegia, Henry!" Henry exclaimed. He then bowed as an elegant prince would, but then met face to face with Maribelle. "Oh yeah, I'm also blind."
"I…see." She looked toward Tharja, and I nudged my friend so that she wouldn't be completely disappointed in us.
"And I'm daughter to a couple of dark mages in Plegia, Tharja," she said unenthusiastically. I nudged her once more, and she half curtseyed.
"Well, it appears my etiquette classes have three new students," she said to Lissa. "But I'll be off for now. Ta-ta!"
She then walked outside the door.
"Sorry, she takes a bit to warm up," Lissa smiled awkwardly.
I pray to the Gods that's true, because I don't think I could take her behavior for more than a week.
"Well, let's continue on, shall we?" Chrom said to break the awkwardness.
We continued walking along down the hall when we eventually reached a small door.
"This is the Barracks, which is where we hold our team's Roster and usually relax from a long day of training," Lissa stated.
"Virion and his assistant, Cherche, usually spend most of their free time here," Chrom added.
"And Maribelle and I usually have our tea time here, but there also a lot of books for you to read from the shelves in case you get bored."
Books? OH THANK THE GODS!
We moved along and saw a red-haired (that went to her shoulders) woman with a black, pointy hat (similar to those of witches in old fairytales), black top with gray, poofy pants (granted, not as poofy as my gown), and glasses watch over a cauldron as a young man with a similar pointy hat that looked like it could cover his entire head that was colored blue to match his semi-blue, semi-gray robe. Along with them was a young child that had red hair similar to the woman (only it was much closer to his head seeing as how we was a toddler) and wore a black robe as well.
"Working on spells again?" Frederick asked.
The three in the room turned their attention toward us and then the toddler then got a look of excitement on his face.
"Daddy!" He exclaimed. My eyes widened.
"D-daddy?!" I said. I then saw Frederick pick the boy up and had his mood change from cold general to caring father.
"Yes, as in father to our child," the woman stated. She then walked over to Frederick and gave him a peck on the lips. "And my husband."
Oh. My. Gods. Frederick, of all people?! A general who basically wanted to see me destroyed a caring father and husband?!
"Miriel, this is Anne, Tharja, and Henry," Chrom said. "They're our new recruits for the Shepherds."
Instead of a proper introduction, Miriel simply observed each and every one of us. After a while, she then readjusted her glasses and smiled.
"Well, I look forward to fight alongside you three," she said. She turned toward her…son. "Do you want to say hello, Laurent?"
"Are you sure the scary lady won't eat me?" The boy asked as he hid his head behind Frederick's as he pointed toward Tharja.
I could feel Tharja wanting to beat the living essence out of that child, so I had to make sure that she wouldn't actually get away with it.
"Don't worry, kid. She's really nice when you get to know her. Just don't make her mad," Henry said as he would to a normal person.
With that, Laurent had come out of hiding and smiled a bit.
"Hello," he quietly said.
"How about Mommy, you, and I help get tonight's dinner?" Frederick cooed. Yikes, was it unsettling; I think I actually prefer intimidating Frederick.
"Okay!"
With that, Frederick, Miriel, and their son departed. We were then confronted by the other young man.
"So yeah, my name's Ricken!" He exclaimed. "I'm currently trying to work on my magic."
"Oh, we can help out, then," I said. "We're all magic users."
"Henry and I are dark magic users, though," Tharja pointed out. "And Anne's trying to learn how to use a sword."
"Also, you sound really young," Henry said.
"Hey, I'm short for my age!"
"I said sound, not look. I'm blind, you see. HEY, I made a pun!" Henry then cackled.
"Still, I'm a lot older than I seem." He then pouted like a child would.
"Let's move on," Lissa said.
As much as I would love to gloss over every introduction, well, none were quite as interesting as the first two, so I'll just briefly summarize things:
In the mess hall was a normal looking guy named Stahl who had very short, but messy brown hair and armor similar to Sully's that was instead green and had more space for the collar. He basically loved to scarf down everything that was presented to him as a meal and was the "weapon master" of the Shepherds, so he said he could help me use my Balmung when we had the chance. He then proceeded to hand me my Balmung because he thought it looked neat.
In the training room, there was a very muscular blond fellow by the name of Vaike, or as he likes to call himself, "Teach". He had two chains dangle from his collar piece and had a piece of armor go all the way across his left arm. However, despite that and a pair of pants along with some boots, he was armorless. I found that to be incredibly stupid since he was wielding a non-throwing axe, so he obviously had to run up to people in order to kill them. (I mean, what if he got shot by an arrow? At least a shirt would be able to prevent some of the blood from flowing out!) He also seemed to be rather "heroic" (in the sense that he was quite arrogant).
Outside with the animal pens were not only Pegasi, but also a black dragon. Not the size of Grima, thank the Gods, but the size of any horse. Here, a rather nice-looking woman with long, pink hair that had two dragon wings in said hair by the name of Cherche appeared and told her that the dragon was hers. The wyvern (as Cherche scolded me) was named Minerva, and probably sensed that I had Grima inside of me as she seemed a tad bit friendlier to me than she did to Henry or Tharja.
Along with Cherche were Cordelia and Sumia, but I think I've already explained who they were. But this time, I saw Sumia make a so-called flower fortune for my associates and me. I didn't really understand what they were, but I was grateful for the gesture.
We reunited with Sully and Virion for a bit and Virion decided that I should be the Shepherd's "tactician-in-training" just in case something happened to him or he didn't want to handle all the responsibility. Sully made sure to hit him for me, and then she gave me a friendly handshake as a sign of appreciation. As I walked past them, I thought being a tactician might at least help me get better with reactions and such.
Out of nowhere, though, a big suit of orange armor followed us, but then it turned out a plain-looking guy named Kellam was in it and explained that he was with us the whole time. I didn't really understand how that was possible, seeing as how any of us should've noticed a GIANT SUIT OF ARMOR following us. Were we purposely trying to ignore him? He seems like a nice guy…
And…yeah, that was all the Shepherds. They seem to be very kind folk, but I just hope they don't suddenly turn on me once they figure out who I really was…
Soon, it became dinner time and we all had a place to sit. Tharja, Henry, and I originally wanted to sit by ourselves, but Lissa wouldn't allow that; she said we had to "socially interact". So, Tharja was stuck with the piece of armor, Henry with Maribelle, and me with Stahl. It was here that I realized people wanted to see who could eat faster: me or him. (Mainly Vaike, but I digress). We turned out to tie because I honestly didn't care what food tasted like as long as I had some. That was the scavenger diet and I had grown far too accustomed to it.
But before dinner was officially over, Chrom had made an announcement.
"Everyone, as ordered by the exalt, we will head to Regna Ferox first thing tomorrow morning so that we may support them against future Plegian attacks! So, pack up anything that can keep you warm, as you will need it!"
"Why?" I asked.
"Regna Ferox is known for its snow and cold climate," Miriel stated. "Along with their demeanor of wishing to fight more than wishing to talk."
"Yes, so also make sure your weapons are in top condition just in case we can't arrange anything with them."
Snow? Cold climate? Oh no…