Chapter Six: Nightmares

Lissa's own screaming woke her up.

Monsters, swords, something about Father. She'd been running like a thousand hands were holding her back, looking for Chrom and Emmeryn, but they weren't anywhere. Nobody was anywhere except the monsters.

"Milady?" someone said. Her screaming had woken somebody else, up, too. "It was only a dream."

"What?" she wobbled back. The voice sounded familiar. A handmaid? Yes, the one on the pallet on the floor. Lissa was in her bed, even though she was breathing hard like she really had been running. Her sheets were all tangled. Her hair was wet. She started to cry.

"I don't feel good. I want Emmy."

"It was only a dream," the maid said again. Her voice was the soothing one she used before bedtime, but it didn't calm Lissa down any better now than it did then. She jumped out of bed and sprinted for the door. A hand grasped at her nightgown and missed.

"Milady!" the maid called from behind her. She ran even faster, whimpering with every breath, heart in her throat. "Not at this hour of the night! The Exalt needs her sleep!"

Don't call her that! Lissa wanted to yell back, but her voice was still mostly stuck. It was too easy to imagine the maid as another monster chasing her. The corridors had looked the same in her dream, big and dark and cold. She threw herself around the corner, charged past more doors and guttering torches.

"Princess Lissa!" Now the voice was sharp.

There! One of the royal guards! Lissa skidded to a stop before her and Emmeryn's big heavy doorway, tears still falling. The woman crouched to look into her face.

"Milady, what is it?"

"I want Emmy," she pleaded. "I had a nightmare. Please let me see her."

"Princess Lissa." The maid swooped down onto them all too quickly. "It was a dream. None of it was real. This is no reason to go bothering the Exalt in the middle of the night!"

"But she makes me feel better!"

"How can you be so selfish?"

The knight stood, mouth opening, but she didn't say anything. Lissa wasn't sure what to say either. She did feel selfish. Awful. Like she might be sick. But she was still so scared.

The door creaked open. The maid gasped and the knight tightened her grip on her spear and Lissa rushed through the dark crack and clung to the warm legs she met behind it.

"What all is the matter?" Emmeryn asked sleepily. A hand came down and patted Lissa on the head. "My, you're soaked. Have you been running races?"

"It was a mere bad dream, Your Grace," the maid said stiffly. "Please do not concern yourself."

"You should be in bed," the knight agreed, if more slowly. "Sir Frederick told me you were up for his entire watch last night, praying for the new Sir…gods. I've forgotten his name."

"Kell—" Emmeryn began, but faltered. "Kelley? Kjelle? No, that's a girl's name…"

"As you can see, the lack of sleep is wearing on Your Grace."

"I will take the princess back right away," said the maid. She held out her hands. "Come here, milady."

"No!" Lissa clenched her fists in Emmeryn's nightgown. She was so close. She had her sister in her hands. No way in That Bad Word She Wasn't Allowed To Say would they pry her away now.

"She can stay with me," said Emm, so naturally that even though Lissa knew she'd say it, she still gawked up in surprise. "We'll go back to sleep together."

"Really, milady," the maid began, but Emmeryn gave both women out in the hall a cheerful "Good night!" and shut the door right in their faces.

Lissa's tears had stopped in the hubbub, but as soon as they were alone and Emm picked her up, they started again. She sobbed.

"It's all over, Lissa," she murmured. "You're all right."

"It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

"I missed you."

"Oh." Emmeryn suddenly sounded a little watery, too. She kissed the top of Lissa's head several times before moving them both to the washroom. Lissa tried to calm down before she woke up Emm's handmaid, until she remembered Emm was grown-up enough to send hers away. For the millionth time, she wished she had the same magic powers. That she could just wake up brave and strong and beautiful, and her hair would grow in gentle curls instead of its weird, straw-like swoops, and she would be ladylike and loved instead of a nuisance.

Emmeryn set her down, washed her face with a cold cloth, got her out of her damp nightgown, and put her in one of her own. Lissa giggled and flapped her arms like a bird, since the sleeves went past her fingers and touched the floor. She tried to grab the hem through them so she didn't trip and followed Emm into bed.

"Maybe we should have more sleepovers," Emm said. "This is nice, isn't it?"

Lissa snuggled against her. She felt warm and very safe. Not at all like she felt alone, or even with Chrom. Chrom loved her, but he didn't always like her (and she sure felt the same way). Emmeryn did.

"My hand ladies might not let me come back, though," she realized aloud. "They said you're the Exalt and I can't bother you."

"You are my little sister and you are not a bother. The Exalt said so. They can't say no to that, can they?"

"I guess not." Lissa grinned. "I wish I could make them go away like you did. They're all so grumpy."

"They just worry for you, with Mother and Father gone and me so busy. Sometimes people get very stern when they worry."

"About what?" she asked. "I'm just fine!"

"You have been crying a lot lately," Emm pointed out. Lissa felt her shoulders hunch up. "Just now, out in the hallway, and when you brought me all those flower crowns, there were salt tracks on your cheeks. How can we not worry?"

"I guess I am kind of being a baby." She started to pout but realized it and sucked her lip back in. "I don't want to worry anybody. I'll be…"

There it was. What she needed to do. Maybe it was less of a magical transformation and more of something long and messy, like the soaked butterfly she saw dragging itself out of its casing last week.

"More grown-up," she finished, though she wondered if she could do it.

Emm gave a sleepy hum. "You'll do splendidly."

Lissa was pretty sure she managed to say "I love you" before she fell asleep, but not entirely sure. She was so tired and felt so much better.

When she woke up in the morning, Emmeryn was already gone. But the covers had been tucked back around her very snugly, so she rolled over in her new cocoon and slept in a little late. Her hand ladies could deal with it. The Exalt had said so.

Author's Note: "I love gen. Gen-y gen gen." (But gosh, I need more sister moments. Lissa's in-game reflections on Emmeryn do so much for her character.)