xii
second
That day, Lucina saw her Aunt Emmeryn for the first time in her life.
She had kept away from Ylisstol, spending time instead heading north to face off against Lon'qu in hopes of being able to battle her father at his prime. That had been a selfish decision, she knew. But she had studied the chronology of past events as well as she possibly could before coming to the past, and there hadn't been any major events standing in her way.
In the spare time between events, she kept mostly to small towns and the countryside, battling Risen whenever they appeared in her path. They were a nuisance; dangerous, yes, but hardly of the caliber that they had been in her time. She knew how to get rid of them.
Regardless, since leaving Regna Ferox, she hadn't spoken a word to anyone. The nights had been cold, with nothing but her cape to wrap around her, but she was used to worse. It was surreal sometimes, waking up when the sunlight began to shine through the trees, without comrades and without enemies most times, either. It was quiet, but the birds sang, and when she was careful enough she could come across wildlife of all sorts. Even a couple of bears were wandering around, and she remembered her parents' wistful hopes to eat one again someday, when there weren't Risen around to exterminate the animals and leave them to rot.
After checking the dates, she finally made her way back toward Ylisstol. Afraid to attract unwanted attention, she took off her mask and hid the Brand in her left eye with her bangs, and rarely looked people in the eye. Even with her heart hammering so loudly in her chest that she could hear it in her ears, almost threatening to give her away, the townspeople didn't look at her with suspicion or fear.
In fact, they smiled to her, and bartered with her about payment on food, and suggested to her the best places to visit or to stay at. She took someone's advice about a cheap inn and she rented it starting three days before the date of Emmeryn's assassination. Even though the room was small and cramped, the bed was comfortable, and the food reminded her so much of her childhood meals that she had to hold back tears.
It took an hour for her to calm down that first day, and sleep was hard to come by despite her exhaustion and the comfort of a mattress beneath her. But the next, she took to exploring Ylisstol in its prime, going down every street, checking around nearly every corner. The routes were all familiar, as were most of the locations, but so, so many seemingly random shops were unrecognizable to her. They hadn't stood, back in the future.
And that was when she saw the crowd.
Her interest piqued, Lucina drew her cloak a bit tighter around herself and stood by the edge of the throng of people, looking toward the main street. She had to crane her neck to see around a burly man, but then, she saw the procession.
The guards were donned in glittering armor with decorations of gold. The pegasus knights of Ylisse, at the peak of their grandeur in history, rode their horses on the ground; three in the front, five in the back, and surely the rest were elsewhere, practicing their aerial combat. Even out of their element, the knights and their pegasi were elegant beyond her belief.
And in the middle of the procession was the Exalt.
Emmeryn was stunning, even from a distance. Her hair was the same shade as Aunt Lissa's, but far more elegant and tame in style. Her robes were long and green, trimmed with gold that matched the scepter in her hand. She just about shone in the sunlight.
She waved to her people and they cheered and waved back as she continued on her way, and a new resolve settled deep within Lucina.
She had to stop Grima, not just for her family, her friends, and her people, but also for the aunt whom she had never met.
Lucina returned to her room at the inn to wait out the rest of the time before the Plegian assassins would come. She left the inn early, before dusk fell, and went about once again as if she were a tourist. When night began to fall, she hid in the shadows of alleyways and donned her mask, and unwrapped Falchion to keep ready at her hip.
"It's now, or never," she murmured, and went on toward the castle.
()()()
"I haven't told that story to anyone," Lucina said, gazing up at the blue sky. She felt a bit warm at the thought, and hoped it didn't show in her words or on her face. Inigo would just take her embarrassment and worsen it tenfold.
"All the stories make her sound like she was quite the nice lady." Inigo was sitting next to her in the grass. It was a rare moment where there was nothing immediate that needed attending to, and he hadn't wasted a second in finding her and taking her away from the bustle of camp.
He had asked her if anything in this past time had made her happy—unexpectedly happy.
"I wish you could have seen her. Morgan, too." Lucina's hand absently ran through the grass around her as she watched the clouds. "She was perhaps one of the most radiant women I've ever seen."
A sly smile formed on Inigo's lips. "Oh, I might beg to differ."
Lucina frowned. "What do you mean?"
"If it were me, I would say that no one could ever compare to the light that shines from you, milady."
Warmth blazed on Lucina's cheeks. "Oh, stop it..."
He grinned. "It's true, though."
She looked away, unable to hid her smile otherwise. A bubble of happiness sprung up in her chest. "Well... Perhaps I don't agree with you, but…I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless."
"You are quite welcome," he said, a bubble of laughter rising from his chest and into the air.
She looked back at him. He was still smiling at her, his white hair falling into his eyes.
For the first time in her new body, Lucina feels a twinge of loneliness.
No one is beside her at the moment, as she and the Grimleal wait in hiding for darkness to overtake Ylisstol. Validar is assuring that his forces are ready, walking among them and muttering to himself. He is alone. Aversa was left behind with the puppet king of Plegia, and Henry remains at the Main Cathedral, keeping an eye on matters at Lucina's command.
She doesn't acknowledge the loneliness. After all, how can she ever admit that Henry's annoying, incessantly gruesome sense of humor is so interesting to her? She should be above such things, as Grima's head servant and a facet of Grima herself. Though perhaps a bit of entertainment staves off the dreadful state of having incomplete power, she supposes.
Her fingers trail over Erebus's hilt, now familiar in her hand. She can feel the power emanating from it, hungering for blood after a thousand years of lying dormant. Even after killing so many, it isn't nearly satisfied.
Finally, the scout returns after nightfall, relaying the guard rotation—the same one as the previous night. The Grimleal form into their preassigned groups, but Lucina stays steps away from them. Validar insisted upon giving her guards, but she refused.
Validar gives the signal, and they leave the barren basement. They scurry through the shadows of the night; the moon shines brightly, giving them good enough lighting to see, but it also makes it easier to be seen. The mages whisper hexes on their robes to give the illusion of darkness.
Lucina leads them to the cleft in the castle wall, where Chrom once shattered the stone with a mistimed swing of Falchion during his training. When she was a child, he made her promise to use it as an escape were something ever to happen, and to never tell anyone but their family about it.
She leads the way through, and keeps watch as the others climb through and hide in the shadows.
The courtyard garden matches her memory—quiet, tranquil, full of flowers and small groves of trees. Guards patrol the paths, but none too close to their hiding place. Once Lucina gives the signal, several assassins move out in all directions. This part is simple, to dispatch the guards and take up positions for support from the outside.
Lucina waits with the rest of the main party for several minutes, not a word or even a loud breath passing her lips. One of the mages behind her shifts nervously, the hint of a mutter in the air, and Lucina grabs the hilt of Erebus and levels a glare at the woman. She can't see the expression the mage makes under the cloth covering her face—all but Lucina have hidden any identifiable features under black cloth all over their bodies—but the woman bows her head in haste.
Finally, the call of an owl sounds twice, and then Lucina signals for the group to proceed toward the lesser used entrance from the gardens, on the western side. They slink behind the bushes, careful not the be revealed by the light coming from the castle windows. The guards by both entrances have yet to be dispatched; there is too much open space between the bushes and the doors to let the Plegians go unnoticed.
The two archers notch their arrows and kneel just slightly higher than the shrubbery, taking aim at the guards. Lucina signals them, and simultaneously, their arrows fly.
The first catches one guard in the eye, instantly causing him to crumple to the ground. The second lodges in the other man's shoulder.
"A-attack!" the guard coughs, stunned. Then, louder: "Attack from the western—!"
Another arrow finds his throat, but it's too late.
More yells from the Ylisseans sound out, and then the high-pitched, clanging bells ring out as a warning against intruders. Lucina stands and unsheathes Erebus; it's only haste that keeps her from slaying the errant archer then and there. Her tattoos glow on her scowling face. "Attack as planned! Do not retreat until Emmeryn is dead and the Fire Emblem is in our hands!"
The mages blast bursts of dark fire at the doors barring them from the inside of the castle. The wood is protected from damage by charms, but enough force will eventually cause them to break.
"Take up arms around the mages!" Lucina calls, doing so herself and keeping an eye on the skies and the walls of the castle. They have the gardens, so it's unlikely that any Ylisseans will come from behind a rosebush.
Up on the ramparts, guards appear and aim bows down at them. Lucina shouts, and a spare mage blasts a wind spell to set the volley of arrows spinning. Validar and their archers send attacks back, and one or two bodies fall from the parapets to the ground with dull thuds.
Above the roar of flames, flapping wings beat at the air. Lucina rushes to the east flank to intercept the first flier, slicing at the pegasus's flank. It whinnies in pain, and the knight scowls and aims her lance at Lucina, but she easily parries the blow. The knight's grip on her weapon loosens, and she tries to rear back, but Lucina slices at the steed's wing. The pegasus loses balance, and Lucina takes advantage of the panic to stab through the knight's chest. When Lucina pulls out her blade, the woman slumps over her steed's neck, and the beast manages to flee at a low altitude, even with a bloodied wing.
From there, the battle starts to seamlessly meld together, her actions flowing from one to the next without thought. An arrow grazes her arm, another pegasus knight stabs her thigh, but the wounds don't stop her. She continues the defense until the Plegian mages' flames cut out.
At the first opportunity, she turns from the flank and takes up the head, leading the way over the charred remains of the doors into the castle proper. Guards and armored knights block the two branching hallways, but she hardly cares and charges toward the western path. She darts through and around them, slicing at exposed areas, leaving them weakened for the Plegian forces behind her. The Ylisseans balk at her speed; some try to attack her, but they can barely touch her.
"The Shepherds are coming the north!" a Ylissean calls out over the dim of battle. "The Shepherds—!"
Lucina slices through the man's neck, forgetting all around her for a moment as he falls to the floor.
Our scouts were wrong, then. They're back already.
It hardly matters.
She darts off again, so sudden that the enemies around her can't react in time to cut off her route. She gives even less care to those around her, only using her sword when force is the only way she can get through. She turns and goes up a curved, narrow staircase, and this is the only part that slows her down—there's no way to get around the guards except to cut them down and step over their bodies.
Lucina climbs for two levels, and then breaks out into the hallway that leads to the living quarters. It is empty.
Lucina hisses in irritation and runs toward the end of the hallway, toward the great double doors that lead to the quarters. She grabs one of the large, round knockers and pulls; it budges, but not by much. Her actions cause panicked words to rise up from inside, and she hears the word "Exalt." She smirks.
While pulling on the door with one hand, she takes up Erebus in the other and wedges it in the space between the doors. The tip hits something solid, but relatively soft: wood.
She hacks away at it as best as she can with the awkward angle. Erebus may not be an axe, but it's more than sharp enough to wear down the wood. Still, it takes up valuable time, and she knows that even with her bow-laden assassins in the gardens, if Emmeryn were taken away by pegasus it would spell failure for their mission.
An idea strikes her mind.
"Your Grace!" she calls mockingly, continuing away at hacking. "Won't you come out? I have a proposition for you!"
"Her Grace would have nothing to do with you!" an indignant woman's voice comes through. Lucina ignores the woman but decides to kill her first.
"I know you must be planning on escaping somehow," she continues loudly. "But wouldn't that just mean condemning your subjects to death? I'm only here for you and the Fire Emblem, after all. Come out, come out!"
A few swings later, her sword hacks through enough of the wooden barricade, and it splinters apart with a loud groan as she wrenches open the door. A small retinue of pegasus knights without their mounts stream from the room, lances aimed at Lucina's heart. Behind them, Lucina can see a trio of guards around the Exalt, a physic staff in her raised hand.
The pegasus knights of Ylisse are highly skilled women, the Exalt's entourage. Two stab into Lucina's left arm before she can slice their legs, causing them to tumble to the floor. Lucina parries another lance and slices the attacker's arm clean off. Blood spurts from the wound, splattering onto the other knights' bodies as the woman falls in pain.
Two of Emmeryn's three guards join the fray, and when the Exalt's staff glows, two of those on the floor rise to their feet. Lucina yells in exertion, slicing Erebus in a wide arc, and she takes someone's head. One of the knights screams, and the remaining knights stab at her in coordination; she tries to parry and block, but one attack grazes her side.
"Why won't you just—stay down!" she demands, and two at once fall to her blade. The remaining two barely have time to put up defensive positions before Lucina stabs one and kicks the other to the ground. She pulls out her sword and almost lazily slices the other woman's stomach open before calmly walking into the living quarters proper.
The quarters fork into two separate wings, the space large enough to accommodate even a large royal family. The main area is a sitting room—although the furniture has been pushed aside as if they planned to barricade the door. The far wall is full of tall windows, revealing the orange glow of fires coming from below. The Exalt and her guard stand by the glass; one of the panes is half-open, but there is no sound nor sight of aerial rescue.
She can feel the twinge in her skin and the heat in her stomach as the stored souls in her work to slowly mend her wounds. She flicks her wrist and sends the excess blood on her blade to scatter on the floor.
"How many more will die before you give yourself up?" Lucina asks, a demonic grin sliding onto her face.
Emmeryn is pale, staring at her knights with wide eyes. But at Lucina's words, she looks up, and her lips fall into a frown, her brows narrowing together. "I will not bow down to one who would commit genocide upon my people."
The last guard—Phila, Lucina recalls vaguely—steps forward, a deadly-looking lance in her hands. "If you take one more step, I will—"
"You can't kill me, human," Lucina spits. She points Erebus at the knight. "To try such would be suicide."
"Phila," Emmeryn warns, and the knight hesitates.
Lucina darts forward.
She pulls Erebus close and stabs outward with force, but Phila parries the blow just enough to go unscathed from the attack. The knight pushes on her lance with both hands to send Lucina backward, and the princess rolls to the right to keep from losing her balance. Phila hounds her, stabbing, and Lucina is forced to parry as she goes backward toward the eastern wing, on the defensive.
Phila stabs forward once more, narrowly missing Lucina's stomach. Before the knight can retract her forward momentum, Lucina grabs the lance with her left hand and pulls. Phila catches herself before she falls forward, but it still leaves her open.
An arc of blood bursts from Phila's hip to her shoulder, splattering Erebus's blade, and the knight falls on her back, her hand still clutched around her lance. Lucina lets go of it like it's a boring toy.
"Phila!" Emmeryn gasps, and her staff glows.
Phila sucks in air, and the wound on her chest starts to close. She grips her lance, but Lucina steps on her arm and aims Erebus at her neck.
"Phila!" Emmeryn screams again, but Phila only glares up at Lucina.
"I will die before you try to use me as a bargaining chip for the Fire Emblem," she spits.
Lucina smiles. "Well, isn't that good for you? I wasn't planning anything of the kind."
With one slice, Phila speaks no more.
Emmeryn shakes, but her staff glows still. Lucina pays it no mind—even if Phila can be saved, only the rarest of staves could return her to fighting condition in an instant—and she steps calmly toward the Exalt.
"What will you do now, Your Grace?" she taunts, smiling all the while. "Leap from the open window? No one will ever catch you. I would just pluck the Fire Emblem from your corpse."
Emmeryn closes her eyes, and a few seconds later, the glow in her staff fades slightly. One hand travels to her backside, and she pulls a tome from her robes.
Lucina laughs. "The pacifist would raise a hand in battle?"
"My people—all people—need peace," Emmeryn says, only the slightest tremor in her voice revealing her fear. "Surely you must require it as well. I will fight you if I must, but even you…even you must need peace."
"The only peace to be found is beyond the doors of death." Lucina raises Erebus, and—
"Lucina!"
Mirth twists her lips and she turns, almost lazily, to look at the newcomer.
Standing in the doorway, amidst the knights' corpses, face hidden behind what was once her mask, is Morgan.