Two rescues occur simultaneously.
Leo wasn't ready to lose his brother.
Already, he had lost his sister to a miserable death. Soon, he would lose his oldest friend. There was little left to keep him going besides a promise to keep and a desperate struggle to abide his own shameful, grieving heart.
It was his hubris that had killed Elise, that allowed her to slip through his fingers. It was his negligence that had written Corrin's epitaph and his hand that would rend her throat. His guilt had become a prison, trapping him within his own thoughts and sharpening his tongue to draw blood. Every day, a new flaw befell him. Every day, he felt his father's blood within him stirring.
Without his brother, there would be nothing to quell it. Xander was the only good thing left in his life.
Odin and Niles would never be able to control him and, though he loved her, Camilla wasn't good. His older sister made up for the half of their father that he couldn't, the lustful and explosive half. Her desires knew no adversity because she crushed anyone and anything in the way. She would kill for those she valued and she called it love but it wasn't. It was jealousy, envy, greed, but it wasn't love. It was possession and she was just as weak as he was.
Xander would haunt them both and Nohr would burn.
As the others rushed after their future king, Leo fell still. The monstrous extremity that gripped his brother's throat might as well have encircled his own. Impending doom permeated his will and wrestled with the spirit there. In the hysteria, he found calm but it was only the passing eye within a hurricane of mania. Still, it fooled him. He believed he had found clarity and he acted upon it, unhinged and dangerous.
I won't lose Xander.
His left hand drew Brynhildr. It fell open with a hiss. He closed his eyes.
I can't.
His lips mouthed the incantation. His fingers directed its might. Its bloodlust surged within him.
I need him.
To a chorus of horrified shouts, the roots of Brynhildr emerged. They tore into flesh, human and beast alike. The ground shook. The monster shrieked. Leo opened his eyes.
The evil tendril was gone but it left a trail of viscous black blood behind. He couldn't see his brother through the mass of people crowded around him. He moved forward on unsteady feet. Each step closer was in echo in his heart. Each inch closer brought the thought, Did I kill him?
Unspeakable guilt drew his face long and his eyes wide. He imagined his brother's body as little more than strips of flesh and crushed bone. He imagined his sister's face with accusing eyes and snarling mouth. He imagined Corrin's shock, her raw anger. He imagined her clawing out his heart to replace the one he'd murdered.
His thoughts raced and he couldn't shake his memories. With muddled clarity, his mind offered snippets of his brother and he thought of every sacrifice his brother had made for him; all the nights spent awake, all the failed potions he'd endured, all the days he'd forgone with Corrin, all the times he'd suffered their father's ire. Leo's eyes stung.
Xander turned from Nohr for me, Leo thought, And I've murdered him for it.
His thoughts slipped into frenzied memory.
"Leo."
"Ah, Xander. I was wondering when you were going to return from Cyrkensia. Did you stop off in Nestra again? It must be-"
Leo finally turned and his ramblings fell short. Xander stood just inside the doorway, flanked by two of the King's guardsmen. His face was dour; his eyes solemn.
Leo scowled.
"Brother, what is the meaning of this?"
Xander's answer was curt and his tone barren.
"Father has ordered your execution."
The words caught Leo in the chest and he took a step backwards, banging his hip against the corner of his desk. Disbelief wracked his body and he struggled to speak over it. When he managed to speak, it was a booming demand for an explanation, much more boisterous than he felt.
"On what grounds!?"
The King's guardsmen moved in unison at his outburst and drew their weapons with great speed. Xander calmed them with the flat of his hand, signaling for ease.
"He knows about Izumo."
Xander waited for a moment of clarity but Leo gave him none. He could only stare with mounting horror. Xander continued when Leo gave no response.
"You let Corrin go. He's commanded me to bring you before him."
Leo did not ask how his father had discovered his transgression nor did he ask how Xander knew. Instead, he raised his right hand as if he intended to ward them off. It was more pathetic than it was intimidating. His fingers shook.
"Brother, this is madness."
Leo had never been frightened by his brother before. Xander had always been a pillar of strength, a shoulder to lean on, a valued friend and an even better brother. But Nohr had always captured Xander's heart above all else.
Leo was painfully aware of the proximity of his brother's fingers to Siegfried and he thought manically, Does he intend to strike me down himself?
"Don't make this harder than it has to be."
Leo took off. He sped into the next room and knew that his only escape would come from jumping out the window. But he never made it past the threshold.
Xander caught him in an instant, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind him so that he couldn't even wiggle his fingers. Leo cried out in shock but refused to give. He twisted and turned, intending to give his brother hell, until his brother's deep voice was rumbling in his ear quietly begging, "Trust in me."
And Leo did. But beyond that, he wanted to believe in his brother. He wanted Xander to prove everything he'd ever believed about him to be wrong. He wanted to believe that blood came before country. So Leo submitted.
With little warmth, Xander dragged Leo from his quarters and into the corridor. The King's guardsmen followed close behind, ready to spring should Leo have attempted an escape. As time dragged on and they drew closer and closer to the throne room, Leo feared deceit.
He's tricked me, Leo fretted, He truly is lost.
Then, an arrow whizzed past his head and the air wavered from a sudden burst of flames and both guards lay dead. Odin and Niles rounded the corner. Leo had never been so happy to see them.
Xander released him and Leo drew his arm before him, rubbing ruefully at the sore skin. Before Leo could make any sort of quip about his rough treatment, Xander commanded, "Leave. Now. Father won't hesitate to send the guards after you."
Odin and Niles began down the corridor but Leo stayed put.
"You're staying?"
Xander nodded and announced, "Not for long. I'll join you soon enough."
"But-"
"Go!"
Leo's vision was hazy. His thoughts were a monotonous confession of guilt. The soul crushing fear of having served as the catalyst for the end of the world crushed his windpipe and stunted his motion.
I've murdered my brother.
Did Camilla watch him die?
I've murdered my brother.
Would they turn on him?
I've murdered my brother.
Could they keep Corrin from discovering?
I've murdered my brother.
Leo's legs wobbled and his hands came up to his face, both dragging through his hair and stretching the skin thin and taunt. His vision spun. He was going to be sick.
I've murdered my brother.
Then, the glorious refrain broke through; "He's alive!"
Leo fell into a dead sprint. His eager hands knocked aside countless onlookers until he had broken through.
A quick glimpse of his brother was all he managed. All at once, he was accosted by three separate parties. Peri yelled at him for attacking Xander. Odin and Niles feared for his health, demanding Felicia to turn her attention to him next.
When he attempted to brush past them, Peri wrenched him aside. She screamed threats of murder and left scratches on his armor.
Leo was numb. He understood why she was angry but he couldn't bring himself to care. Everyone stared, judging him insane with hooded eyes. His hands shook.
"Leo."
Peri's presence seemed to melt. One second she was shaking him to bits and the next, he stood facing his brother.
His armor had lost much of its luster to Brynhildr and faint lines marred his flesh but he was still very much Xander. And he was very much alive.
With a heaving sigh, Xander said, "Please don't ever do that again."
"Your uncle's lost his damned mind," Soleil muttered, nudging Siegbert in the ribs as Prince Leo launched himself at King, no, Prince Xander. They hugged awkwardly and, when Prince Leo turned his head her way, Soleil recoiled and gasped, "He looks terrible!"
Siegbert was silent, practically catatonic from witnessing his future father narrowly survive evisceration.
Kana's probably losing his damn mind over this, Soleil thought as Princess Camilla joined and enveloped her brothers in a weepy hug. Tearing her eyes from the royal sob fest, Soleil expected to find Kana's wide grin lighting up the air beside Siegbert. Instead, she found nothing.
"Shit!" she hissed, spinning in search of the boy. Judging by Siegbert's panicked expression, he was doing the same.
Before either could alert the group, a nasally laugh rang out through the corridor. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and her hand immediately went to her sword.
The flames sputtered around them and plunged them into darkness. Screams rang out and fell short, falling into sudden and disturbing silence.
Soleil's hand tightened around her sword and she fought to steady her breathing. She listened. She waited.
From the center of the group, just to her left a ball of flame ignited and soared upwards. The fire rushed across the ceiling, burrowing into the cracked stone and illuminating the corridor in murky firelight.
The first thing Soleil saw was Siegbert on her left and Shigure on her right. There came relief from seeing them both standing, even if Shigure still made her simmering mad, but then she noticed the body of a young soldier at her feet. His mouth was stretched wide, his eyes bulged, and his chest was crushed flat in a sickly mess of blood and flesh. Soleil stumbled back, too stunned to speak.
Her feet slipped on slick floor and she teetered, managing to catch herself on Siegbert's rigid arm. When she had steadied herself, she saw the growing puddle of blood that had nearly sent her onto her behind. Then, she saw the squished head that it stemmed from.
While she retched at the gore, the ground began to shake and down she went. A shriek tore her throat as the warm, sticky blood soaked through her boots, matted her hair, and coated her hands. Above her, Shigure and Siegbert had used each other to keep themselves upright and, in the moment, she truly could have killed them.
They were saved by figures rising from the ground and flickering into view. Their gruesome faces were wreathed in purple flame and Soleil thought, Why can't we ever fight anything normal?
The ghostly warriors wasted no time in attacking and Soleil found herself having to roll and slide along the bloody floor to escape several blows that came sailing her way. When she finally managed to clamber to her feet, Siegbert had run off in one direction and Shigure the other.
"Typical!" she growled as they both disappeared into the fight. A spectral lancer swung at her and she spun out of the way and into the broad chest of an ally.
"Soleil!" Laslow shouted as she lurched away from him and slashed her sword through the lancer's leg. The severed leg stood erect while its body fell away. Laslow stabbed it through the head.
"Laslow," she greeted awkwardly. At this point, she must have said her father's name a thousand times but it never got any less weird. A thousand times she'd called him Laslow and a thousand times she'd wished to tell him the truth and call him dad. It was pure stubbornness that kept her from saying dad. She'd be damned if she was the one to blow the secret!
The air beside them crackled and a burst of dark energy encased the soldier standing nearby. Before the woman could even cry out, she fell to the floor with a flattened chest cavity.
"Ginnugagap!" Prince Leo screeched over the battle.
"Gesundheit!" Soleil called back, unable to resist. Laslow snorted as engaged an axman and Soleil cheerily thought, I am my father's daughter!
"It's Ginnugagap!" Prince Leo screamed again. "He's back!"
Though Prince Leo was nearly ten feet away, Brynhildr erupted from the ground, wildly off target and nearly taking off Soleil's foot.
"Somebody take that from him please!" Soleil shouted after she had launched herself out of range to safety.
A sword whizzed past her head, missing her ear by millimeters. She slashed at the wielder but the spectral warrior swung out of the way with inhuman speed. Before she could even shift her footing, it came at her again.
With great dexterity, she flipped out of range and, while the spectral warrior regained its stance, she hefted her sword at it, aiming the edge at its face.
Her sword ripped the swordsman's face in two and it stumbled back, clawing at the steel embedded in its skull. Rushing forward, she tore the sword from its head with a wet thwack and lobbed its head off in a single swing.
As its headless body toppled to the floor, a shock of blonde hair came into view and Soleil was unsurprised to see that it was not unaccompanied. In the heat of battle, Siegbert had sought out his would-be father and now fought alongside him, practically a shadow of the future king. Their technique was one in the same and they moved in near perfect sync. Soleil found herself rolling her eyes at the display.
At least I didn't try to find my father, she thought but knew that Siegbert probably hadn't either. The only one of them that had actively sought out their parent was her brother who had rushed to Azura's side the moment the attack had commenced.
Beside her, Laslow had fallen into open-mouthed awe at the sight and muttered, "Am I losing my mind or are there two Xanders?"
The lapse cost him. An arrow burst from his shoulder and he stumbled backwards with a shout of surprise. Losing her composure, Soleil shrieked, "Dad!" before realizing she misjudged the severity of the situation.
The arrow was embedded between the slates in the plating on his armor but had gone no deeper than that. With ease, Laslow wrenched the arrow free and looked at her sideways.
"Did you call me dad?" he questioned before attacking another ghost warrior. Fending off her own attacked, Soleil yelped, "Nope! I said, uh, rad! Because you didn't die!"
Whether he lost interest or was too busy fighting, he didn't persist in questioning her and her chest heaved in relief. Then, the air around her began to simmer.
Instinctively, she ran forward, familiar enough with magic to know that burbling air was never a good sign. The mounting pressure followed. Falling into a dead sprint, she darted around the battlefield with the threatening magic chasing after her. A constant mantra of "Please don't get me. Please don't get me" echoed in her head and her stomach boiled.
After what felt like an eternity of cat and mouse, a sniveling voice shrieked, "Damnit! Stop running! Stand still!"
Before she could even reject the rude request, the atmosphere over the entire battlefield darkened and every hair on her body stood up as a chill traced down her spine. Then a corona of red-violet inferno arced over her head and nearly melted the flesh from her bone. It blew away a section of the wall beside her and slammed into the chest of the man hidden behind it.
From the numerous war stories told by her father, she knew that Siegfried's power was tremendous and absolute. He'd recounted tales of men so thoroughly obliterated by Siegfried's miasma that not even ashes remained and entire structures leveled by its terrible might.
So why then is the worm behind the wall not dead!? Soleil thought as the man stood and dusted himself off.
Soleil didn't recognize him but she had never been a history buff and, even if she had paid attention in her history lessons, the man that stood before her now was so emaciated and decayed that it was doubtful she would have made the connection on her own.
The only distinguishing feature about him was a garish golden mask that covered the right half of his face but it was enough. Laslow, who had followed her across the battlefield, gasped aloud while cries of recognition erupted from across the group. The man cackled wildly.
Before he could deliver the evil speech that he surely had prepared, a second blast from Siegfried vaporized him. Almost immediately, the same sniveling voice that had screamed at her to be still spoke above the din of battle.
"How many times are you going to fall for that, Crown Prince?"
"The dread sorcerer Iago!" a man beside Soleil shouted in alarm. When she turned to face him, he lay dead on the floor, abdomen flattened.
"Reveal yourself worm!" Prince Xander commanded. At his side, Siegbert sank low, readying himself for an attack as the battle came to a grinding halt.
A man had come to stand at the end of the corridor and his garish mask was liquid gold in the firelight. He raised his hand and every warrior suddenly bore his image. When he spoke again, his clones spoke with him.
"Anankos has granted me vast and unstoppable power! With it, I will crush you all like ants underfoot!"
As the Iago clones began the attack anew, Soleil found herself rolling her eyes as she dodged a axe intended to split her skull apart.
He had such an opportunity to say something really badass and that's what he went with? she thought, whirling to lodge her blade into a lancer's throat. I guess good villains are hard to come by.
Suddenly, a massive howling noise sounded, filling the entire chamber. Screams rang out and, back against the unfolding events, Soleil could only assume Iago had unleashed some sort of hellish torment upon them. But, even when the noise vanished, the screams persisted. In fact, they only intensified and Soleil found herself questioning whether they had been screams of terror at all.
"What's all the hubbub?" Soleil shouted aloud and received no response. She exhaled loudly and hurried to dispatch her attacker. When she had managed to drive the axe wielding Iago clone into range of her father and after he had lobbed off its head, she spun in place and saw the hubbub.
A petite blonde girl and a gaunt man with a white ponytail stood where the once undead and now dead again Iago had been. His corpse lay in a broken pile against the nearby wall beneath a single black, bloody streak. Within seconds, his body had disintegrated into ash. The illusion he had cast vanished and the ghostly warriors bore their own ugly mugs once more.
The white-haired man had rapped her across the knuckles far too many times for her to mistake him for anyone else. Even half a decade younger, Jakob still looked like a prick. The girl however was too far away for Soleil to recognize. The only thing that struck her about the girl was her eyes. They burned a bright inhuman blue.
Princess Camilla shouted, "Elise!" and before Soleil could even remember Elise was supposed to be dead, the tome in the blonde girl's hand burst open, its pages rippling in rapid, constant motion and her long blonde tresses billowed around her head like she were standing in a windstorm.
Later, Soleil would recall things as happening very fast but, in the moment, they happened slowly.
There came the same howling noise as before and a torrent of churning, twisting energy emerged from the blonde girl and ripped down the corridor. It displaced everything in its path. Friend and foe alike were sent flying into the walls or ceiling and the force of the blow knocked many unconscious.
Soleil was one of the lucky ones, having been thrown in such a way that only her elbow banged against the hard stone. It hurt like a bitch and she cursed like a sailor but, upon seeing Shigure's hand hanging limply at the wrist, she felt a little better about it.
"She attacked us!" someone screamed and panic ran rampant. Archers drew their bows, mages opened their tomes, and soldiers readied their weapons. The focus was entirely on Elise when it should have been on the attacking ghosts.
The enemy recovered quickly and wasted no time in attacking their scattered, distracted party. Their blows hit harder while their victims struggled to redirect their attention.
Even as the spectral attackers cut through them, many charged Elise. Their fear had completely overtaken their bodies.
"She can't control it!" Jakob screeched, unexpectedly close, and Soleil spun wildly to locate the man that had ceaselessly tormented her as a child. He was just ahead of her, beside Siegbert and his father, leaning against the wall. His leg appeared to be broken and she couldn't help but to think, That's what you get, dastard!
A dark smirk spread across her face when she found a similar sense of justice written on Siegbert's face. His expression soon sobered when a blade came ripping towards him. He knocked it away and Jakob sunk five daggers into the attacker's abdomen.
"What do you mean she can't control it?" Siegbert questioned at the same time his father demanded, "Elise is alive?"
Jakob ignored Siegbert entirely, hobbling past him to speak to Prince Xander directly.
"So long as we take that tome from her," Jakob said and another torrent of unstable gravity burst from Elise. This wave coursed along the left wall, the one opposite of the wall Soleil had been thrown against, and launched bodies every which way.
"We need to stop her!" Jakob insisted, limping towards Elise. Prince Xander charged past him with Siegbert in hot pursuit. Others followed their lead and Soleil joined them.
The spectral warriors continued to rain down blows and pick them off one by one, but the priority had shifted to stopping Elise rather than fending off the attackers.
Elise's tome began to ripple again and the enemy was closing fast on every side.
Soleil knew she couldn't fight and run at the same time so she slowed to a halt amidst a group of soldiers that had remained stagnant while the others began their charge. A swordsman attacked her and she began the familiar routine of dodging and slashing until he had been bested.
It was as she spun to attack the closest enemy that her boots lost traction in a puddle of blood and she slipped. As she careened forward, she saw a tragedy in the making. The seconds slowed.
A woman's back was turned to a fast descending lance. There was no earthly way that she could dodge or deflect the blow. The arc of the weapon would bury it deep between her shoulder blades and sever any number of vital organs. Soleil flung her body at the woman. They toppled over. The lancer's strike struck true in a new target. Soleil's side erupted in sudden, acute agony. Soleil landed hard on the floor beside the woman. Her vision darkened and spotted. She brought her opposite hand to her burning side. Her fingers came away sticking and warm.
The woman's face swam into view and her long, silken locks tickled Soleil's nose.
Mother.
Soleil wanted to cry. And vomit. And pass out. All at once.'
Everything hurt and it hurt worse for her to be there. She hadn't been there for anything else but here she was for this.
Azura's expression twisted. Then she left but at least that was familiar.
Shigure replaced her and Soleil would have wept had she not already been crying from the pain.
"You saved her," he said and she wanted to protest, to tell him that she hadn't intended to. She wanted to clarify that there had been no surge of great heroism that inspired her to impale herself upon the incoming spear nor had there been a moment of resounding clarity and love that had moved her to block the blow meant for her mother. Rather, Soleil had been in the right place at the right time to save a defenseless ally that just so happened to be her mother.
But she didn't.
As Shigure lifted her head from the ground, she found it funny that it had happened this way because of course it would. Of course she would be stabbed defending a woman that had never cared for her. Of course she would do so unintentionally. Of course.
She could feel her life draining out of her through the jagged hole in her abdomen. It hurt to breathe. In fact, it hurt to do anything.
I'm going to die.
"Soleil, don't die on me!"
Her brother hovered above, pale and sweaty.
Somehow, he looks worse than I feel.
"Gods, even bleeding out doesn't stop you from being an asshole."
Oh, I must have said that out loud.
"Soleil, you're saying everything out loud."
Shit.
Shigure ignored her and swiped the back of his hand across his eyes.
"I'm sorry Shigure," she rasped, fully intending to speak aloud this time. She grit her teeth to continue but her brother shushed her.
"You can apologize later," he said, "when you aren't bleeding so much and-"
"You are the ocean's gray waves."
Azura's melody swelled. Shigure's eyes widened. Soleil raised a weak finger and pressed it into Shigure's chest. He got the message.
He left and she knew he would have even if she had done nothing. It was so empty without him. Her ravaged side radiated agony throughout her body. Shigure's voice joined their mother's and she was glad for him, even if it hurt her. As the battle stilled and their song intensified, if she squinted, she could see the notes drifting past but they meant nothing to her.
This blows, she thought and their song lulled her into the emptiness that loomed.
As a healer and a priestess, Sakura had been required to take an oath devoting herself to the discipline. The exact wording was lost to her now but she knew the key facet was, "Do no harm."
Chasing after the monster that held her brother hostage, she wondered if that creed applied to eldritch beings hell-bent on destroying the world. Sakura didn't have the faintest idea what the thing baiting them with Ryoma was, whether it was an extension of Anankos or something else entirely, but she had every intention to rip it apart with her bare hands; solemn oath be damned. She had never really been able to keep a level head when it came to her siblings.
Though she had been one of the first to move, Sakura brought up the rear of the group chasing after her brother. It frustrated her to no end but she just didn't possess the speed to surpass the others. Her lungs burned and her feet ached but she couldn't stop. Stopping meant losing her brother.
The monster ripped around corners, disappearing into the dark and nearly evading their chase on several occasions. Sometimes, it wove serpentine through the corridors and dangled a nearly unconscious Ryoma towards them before yanking him back and speeding away. It traced the pattern they'd previously taken towards the great hall before veering off into an adjacent room. And they followed blindly like lambs to the slaughter.
Unexpectedly, the room shot down nearly a hundred steps before settling on solid ground. Sakura, at the back of the group, was saved from a nasty tumble but the rest of them, save for a fortunate handful, were not so lucky. They plummeted down the steps and lay in a mangled, moaning heap at the base.
Beyond the stairs, Ryoma had been discarded in the center of room, lying bent at the waist with his injured arm outstretched above his head. She shrieked and then she flew down the steps, racing to reach him.
Feet moving faster than her head, she processed her surroundings slowly, realizing with mounting revulsion that the monster had brought them into a holy place, a temple. When she began to notice the black smears on the walls and the moldering skeletons tucked into the corners, her revulsion turned to rage. The desecration was horrific.
Beyond the evident defilement there was a heavy malevolence in the air, clinging to her skin and raising the hairs on the back of her neck. There was something there with them; something that should not have been.
Sakura's boots slammed against solid tile and leapt over the curled soldier in her way, doing her best not to cave to their whimpers. A twinge of shame twisted her throat but she placated herself in knowing that she would offer aide after she had reached Ryoma.
Those that had not tripped down the steps followed behind her, rushing forward in a wall of steel to aid their prince. The evil stirred in the air, watching them charge with hidden eyes, waiting to strike.
It was as Sakura fell to her knees before her brother and laid her hand upon him that the trap was sprung.
From behind the altar at the back of the room, an immeasurable darkness surged forward, honing in on the rosy glow of Sakura's healing. It moved far too fast for her to see but she could feel it; she could sense it rushing to kill her.
It was a shadow brought to life, cloaked entirely in black smoke, and dual blades seemed to unfold from within itself, stretching beyond its form to rend her in two. It was this sudden reveal, the sudden protruding metal that allowed her to locate it and to prepare.
As the swords began their deadly descent towards her skull, Sakura thrust her palm outwards, ring and pinky finger pointing down to her wrist. As she did so, the air around her blazed with violent light. Her eyes became two beacons of solid gold in the brightness.
When the flash faded, their enemy stood revealed to them, cloaked in the dark no longer. Hinoka bit back a sob at their father's unholy form, hollowed from death and twisted by an ancient hate. Though Sakura had witnessed him once before, it was not something that grew easier with time. Unlike her siblings, she did not have fond memories she could return to when the reality of her undead father became too much. It hurt to see him.
The protective blast Sakura had raised had sent Sumeragi stumbling back, giving her precious moments to heal her brother. As the others struggled to overcome the reality they were faced with, Sakura thrust her hands flat against Ryoma's chest and summoned all her strength to imbue him with everything she had left.
Still, her speed was no match for that of a master swordsman and her father's blades came ripping towards her again before she had even begun to mend Ryoma's broken arm. This time, she did not prepare to deflect him. Steel sliced through the air with an eerie hiss and Sakura sent rolling fire into her brother's arm, straightening bone and knitting shredded muscle back together. Her resolve had hardened into an absolute; she would die to save Ryoma. She closed her eyes.
Clanging metal resounded and then the tile at her side was reduced to dust. Ryoma stirred and Sakura opened her eyes.
Subaki stood beside her, breathing heavily, naginata angled before him, forcing Sumeragi's blades against the ground. The risen king of Hoshido appraised the sky knight with empty eyes rather than regaining his stance. Before either of them moved, Hana rushed Sumeragi, slashing at his exposed side and roaring, "You won't hurt her!"
With blinding speed, Sumeragi tore free of Subaki's block and whirled to engage Hana, deflecting her incoming attack with ease. Before any more blows could be traded, the ground began to shake and Sakura's heart leapt into her throat as she continued to coax Ryoma up and out of his malaise. He blinked unconsciousness from his eyes as the rumbling abruptly ceased.
The turbulence had thrown Hana to the ground and she scrambled to regain her composure. As she pushed herself to her feet, Hinoka crossed before her, preventing her from resuming her attack. Her fiery hair hung low over her eyes, wild and untamed like the expression on her face. With a stiff arm, she shoved Hana away and announced, "This isn't your fight."
Hana set her lower lip, ready to argue, but the smoldering determination in the princess' eyes gave her pause; she backed down.
Hinoka readied her naginata for his attack, baiting, "Come at me! Prove to me that my father is truly dead!"
Throughout the entire ordeal, Sumeragi had stood still, coiled to strike but staying his hand. His slack expression pointed directly at his daughter but there was no hint of recognition or remorse.
Is there nothing left of him? Sakura thought as she helped Ryoma to sit up. Her brother's eyes grew narrow at the sight of their father but he said nothing. His expression was tight and the fear on his face didn't seem to be for their sister.
"Hinoka," Sumeragi rasped and Sakura's skin crawled. His voice was graying cobwebs and dry, chattering bones in a single sound.
"Don't speak my name monster!" Hinoka howled and launched herself at him, composure completely lost. Her attack went wide and Sumeragi side stepped it, delivering a merciless counterattack. Hinoka leapt away, narrowly escaping being run clean through.
"She'll be dead within seconds," Ryoma said quietly, climbing to his feet. Sakura tugged at his knee, silently begging him to wait, to fully regain his strength.
Stepping clear of her pleading touch, Ryoma drew Raijinto in a slow, foreboding pull. The air wavered around him. For the briefest of moments, her skin began to tingle and her teeth tasted like copper. Then, her hair stood on end as the room drowned in radiant, blinding light.
The lightning struck its mark, driving tongues of white hot electricity through their father's chest. Still upright, Sumeragi's decaying body convulsed and flesh dripped from his bone like candle wax.
The sight was gruesome but Sakura's stomach could not be lost to physical horrors. Her retainers, however, did not share her iron constitution. Behind her, Subaki was suddenly and violently ill from the smell of burning flesh and Hana had to shield her eyes lest she suffer the same fate.
When it was over and Sumeragi's blackened bones lay in a discordant pile, Ryoma sheathed Raijinto and extended his hand to Hinoka who had thrown herself onto the ground far from their father's remains. Rejecting his help, she uneasily climbed to her feet and stumbled towards them and Sakura's heart lurched in fear of her sister being rendered blind by the blast. However, Hinoka had merely tripped over Sumeragi's femur.
"It can't be that easy, can it?" Kagero pondered aloud as her and Saizo came to stand beside them.
It never is, Sakura thought but she held her tongue.
"Perhaps it can be," Ryoma said, tearing his gaze from Sumeragi's smoldering bones. His ochre eyes slid closed and he appraised the situation in wordless reflection.
Sakura turned from him, moving to the wounded adorning the floor and bottom few stairs. Hana and Subaki were her shadows, moving with silence and smooth grace. A thanks bubbled to her lips but Subaki beat her to it, saying, "Don't thank us. You've saved us more times than I can count."
Hana nodded and commented, "Though you've never rescued us with a ward before."
"It's forbidden to use wards in combat, Hana," Subaki chided and, for once, Sakura was thankful for it. She did not want to voice aloud her transgression and acknowledge that she'd blasphemed. Wards were direct blessings from the gods summoned by the only the most devout and skilled. They were meant for sanctuary, not aggression. She would surely be stripped of her position. Her stomach turned.
"Sakura you-!?" Hana blurted but Sakura hushed her with action, kneeling beside the nearest fallen Hoshidian.
The man had his head turned from her but when she began to heal him, he shifted and she saw that he was no man at all. Despite the broken nose and black eye he'd endured, Sakura recognized him. His eyes, hazy from regaining consciousness mere seconds earlier, bore through her.
"Is my mother alright?" Shiro asked blearily and, without him having to say her name, Sakura knew of who he spoke. His fixation on Kagero could allow no other conclusion. Staring down at him, Sakura could see little resemblance but knew his heart aligned with the soft-spoken ninja.
Shiro's hand rose to grip hers, yanking her from her realization, and demanded, "Tell me!"
His eyes blazed and another realization jettisoned all the air from her lungs. His fire was achingly familiar for she saw it every day on the face of her brother. Staring down at him, she thought, Nephew?
"If you're going to play mute then the least you can do is heal me so I can see for myself," Shiro snapped and Hana and Subaki edged forwards, ready to silence his impetuous mouth. Sakura bade them to back down and said to Shiro, "Your mother's fine."
The tension melted from his face and his grip on her hand vanished.
"Good," he said and lapsed into silence while she set to healing him, unable to shake the knowledge that they shared blood and berating herself for not considering it sooner. If the Nohrian's children could come to them from the future, why couldn't her kin?
However, all questions of his lineage soon vanished as the silence around her thickened to the point of acute pressure before suddenly giving way in a hiss of ill intent.
There came a scraping, grating noise from behind her and she turned to see her father's bones crawl across the ground. With astonishing precision, the bones realigned and fused back together in a growing haze of black smoke. Once reassembled, a thin smattering of flesh stretched across Sumeragi's skeleton, thickening with each passing second.
Attempting to stay one step ahead, Saizo threw a shuriken towards the undulating flesh but an invisible boundary threw it back with twice the force. When the shuriken shredded his muscle and buried deep into his chest, the masked ninja didn't make a single sound as he collapsed in sudden agony.
Revenge crossed every face beside him and Kagero was the first to flinch towards attack, shurikens at the ready between her adept fingers. If Ryoma had not thrown up his hand to halt her, she surely would have suffered a similar fate as her fellow retainer.
Gradually, a tittering laugh grew to mask the low squelching of reforming flesh. It echoed through the gaps in the stone and the dust in the air.
At the sound, every able soldier sunk into a defensive stance. The unable soldiers curled into fetal positions, unable to defend themselves in any other way. The only soldier in-between, Shiro, roughly shoved Sakura's hands from his chest and sat up, reaching for his displaced spear.
As the laughter burrowed into their skulls, the smoke enveloping Sumeragi's body began to solidify and spread, encasing the entire area in a dark haze and completely obscuring Sumeragi from view. Hulking figures began to take shape in the curling smoke and low growls resonated within the gloom. Then he spoke.
"tO thInk YOu wOuLd stRiKE wITh yoUr SiSTer iN raNge…YOu hAve imPreSSed mE tOdAy.."
At the words, Sakura's eyes alit on Hinoka's shifting hand and the fern burn emblazoned upon her exposed throat beneath it. Her horrified attention shifted to Ryoma's heavy head and she knew that it had been no mistake. Her blood was ice.
"NeVEr tHe leSS… YOu DIE hErE HoShIdIAN."
The smoke before Ryoma and the others rippled as two blades cleaved it apart. Sumeragi stood before them once more, reformed and reanimated.
"My children," he rasped at them, beckoning them closer with a withered finger and an empty smile.
"I'll kill you!" Hinoka roared and she lunged towards him, bringing her spear rocketing towards his face. Ryoma took a different approach, launching himself upwards and spiraling down towards Sumeragi, Raijinto at the ready to send the abomination back to hell.
The resounding clang was monstrous and a collective shout rang out at its cause. Sumeragi had deftly blocked both attacks and forced Ryoma and Hinoka onto the defensive. As he swung at them, his mouth twisted into an insidious grin.
While they fought, the once formless blobs in the smoke emerged as necrotic behemoths and formed a barrier between her siblings and the rest of their forces. The summoned horde of Faceless wasted no time in tearing into any unlucky enough to stand close by. It was a massacre.
Shiro had left her long before, charging headfirst into the amassed Faceless and Sakura's attention now lay divided between the injured she healed and the plight of her siblings. As she took the time to heal each that needed her, she watched Hinoka and Ryoma battle Sumeragi with bated breath. Watching slowed her healing speed and dulled the result but she struggled to keep her head straight.
It wasn't until the Faceless began to prey upon the injured Hoshidians that she could no longer afford a split attention. While Subaki and Hana beat back the monsters, she hastened her speed, healing one after the other and driving the enraged screams of her siblings from her thoughts until she met with the last of the living.
While she healed the soldier, a Faceless swooped down to devour the bleeding woman. Hana drove her katana through its head. As the monster vanished, the freshly healed woman did not even thank Sakura before rushing off into battle. Sakura couldn't blame her.
Before locating her next target, Sakura spared a glance at her siblings.
Ryoma twisted and spun around their father but never farther than a few inches from the glinting tips of Sumeragi's hagakure blades. From what Sakura could see, he had managed to avoid damage thus far. Hinoka was not so lucky. Her white pants were soaked with blood from a fresh gash across her thigh. As it continued to bleed, her spear work grew sloppy. She fought two battles; one against their father and another against unconsciousness.
"Where's Azama!?" Sakura questioned aloud. Hana grunted, decapitated a charging Faceless, and pointed to a strip of white against the decaying flesh. Simply put, Azama was stuck. He couldn't break through the Faceless on his own nor could he fight them so he hovered beside Kagero, keeping her upright so she could keep the monsters at bay.
"I have to reach Hinoka," Sakura announced, taking a headstrong step forward. Before she could proceed any further, Subaki wrenched her arm back and shouted, "Engaging the Faceless would be certain death!"
"I can't lose my sister too!" Sakura screamed and struggled against his grip. He refused to give and his fingernails carved divots into her flesh. Beside them, Hana said nothing but her silence screamed of compliance.
Sakura yelled aloud in mingled frustration and terror as Sumeragi lifted his dual katanas above his head, preparing to strike Hinoka down. Ryoma intercepted the attack but it was only seconds before Sumeragi was coming for Hinoka again. He was unrelenting, merciless.
It was as Sumeragi batted Ryoma away and prepared to finish off her sister that an arrow bloomed from his forehead, dead center between his eyes. It was sudden enough to stagger Sumeragi and allow Hinoka a moment more of life, but not strong enough to kill him. In a single harsh motion, Sumeragi reached up and ripped the arrow from his skull, leaving a cavernous wound behind.
"Takumi!?" Hinoka screeched, voice hysterical and mouth agape. Her eyes pointed behind them, wide and incredulous.
Subaki's grip slackened and Sakura whirled in place, bringing the world out of and into focus so intensely that she made herself dizzy. Her heart beat so erratically that the din of battle faded and she could hear nothing else but that steady beating rhythm of hope.
Corrin was the first thing she saw. In the billowing smoke, her sister stood proud with her chin held high. With blazing eyes, she appraised the battle below her with the same grit as veteran commanders. She looked every bit like the heroes of yore that adorned the walls of the throne room in Castle Shirasagi. Sakura had no doubt that her sister would join their ranks one day. Provided she didn't become possessed and burn the world to cinders.
Dozens of Faceless charged up the steps, clambering over themselves at the prospect of new meat. When they drew nearer, Corrin lashed out faster than a snakebite with the Yato and reduced the two nearest Faceless to ash. As she began to move down the stairs, decimating Faceless as she went, a figure followed, previously hidden from view.
He looked no different than Sakura had known him her whole life but there was a calm about him that was totally unfamiliar. Perhaps it was that the curve of his stance which had once always been so rigid now had flexibility to it, an ease with the situation at hand. Or maybe it was simply the unfamiliar black formfitting garments he wore that were so unlike the traditional sniper armor that he normally chose.
Either way, she was in a state of disbelief. He was everything she had prayed for since he'd departed but she could not accept him.
Surely, there was a mistake. She had watched him fall with their father's sword in his back. Her mind began to race with maybes to explain away his reappearance because, unlike their father, he wasn't a walking corpse.
If Corrin wouldn't bring us an illusion, would she? Sakura questioned fervidly.
Before her watering eyes, Takumi loosed three arrows in quick succession, felling the Faceless that charged up towards him, and drew another. For a moment, he met her eye and gave her the smallest of smiles as if to say, "I'm okay. I'm real."
Blinking tears from her eyes, Sakura tore her attention away and focused on her other siblings facing more immediate danger. While she had been distracted by Takumi, Sumeragi had kicked Hinoka across the room. She lay flat on her back and struggled to get back on her feet. From her shaking form, Sakura could only assume he'd broken her ribs. Thankfully, he'd kicked Hinoka into range of Azama and the sardonic monk hastened to heal his liege.
Ryoma was holding his own against Sumeragi but the Faceless were fast encroaching. His retainers and the others did their best to keep them at bay but, as more continued to rise, their efforts were becoming fruitless.
A flash of light burst from the top of the steps and when Sakura turned to observe its source, Corrin's dragon form loomed above the attacking Faceless. Monsters that drew too close were swatted away by her fearsome talons or her heavy swishing tail but she did not attack with aggression. Her strikes were timid and weak, serving to stun rather than destroy. Only when the enemy line nearest to Sakura broke, did she realize her mistake.
With a squelch, the Yato emerged through the back of a Faceless and Corrin took its place as it turned to ash. Her eyes met Sakura's for a split second and then she tore into the oncoming Faceless, twisting behind a wall of rotting flesh and disappearing from sight once more.
The dragon roared and Sakura could now hear the minute difference in tone and inflection. These were not roars of aggression and domination but of warning and hesitation. These were the roars of a ten year old boy wildly out of his depth in the body of a monster.
Before her heart could fret for him, Sakura was nearly knocked from her feet as Oboro and Hinata flew by. They were whirlwind of spear and sword against the Faceless until they reached Takumi. Overcome with joy, Hinata wrapped his arms around Takumi and crushed him in a massive hug. Takumi protested and shook free of his retainer's hug only to suffer the same attack from Oboro. Her hug lifted him off the ground and she only put him back down once the Faceless were breathing down their necks once more.
Somehow, Corrin had managed to reach their siblings and had joined the fight against their undead father. Between her, Ryoma, and a freshly healed Hinoka, Sumeragi was forced onto the defensive but ,even at such a disadvantage, his blades swung true and while theirs missed the mark.
When her strike flew wide, Sumeragi dodged Corrin's swipe and one of his blades managed to carve a groove into Corrin's cheek. She grunted but didn't falter, even as blood streamed down her jaw.
From the stairs, a thunderous roar rang out followed by an even more thunderous thud. Infuriated, Kana attacked with renewed vigor and trampled dozens of Faceless beneath his talons. With another roar, Kana sped down the steps and was soon engulfed by a mass of Faceless.
"Kana!" Corrin shouted at the sight. For the briefest of moments, her stance wavered and Sumeragi capitalized on her mistake.
The risen king gripped Corrin by the throat and launched her backwards. Soaring through the air, her body began to shift and her limbs elongated and hardened. Mid-transformation, she slammed into the wall and broke through it in a flash of light and with resounding fury.
Kana's draconic screeching sounded from behind. It echoed ceaselessly and seemed only to deafen and madden everyone within earshot.
When no movement came from the rubble, Sakura made a break for her, dodging Faceless every step of the way.
As she weaved between the mindless monsters, her thoughts were solely on the wellbeing of her sister.
How many more hits can she take before she goes down for good? Sakura fretted, leaping over a downed Faceless and losing her retainers in the process. They were cut off by a new wave of summoned Faceless that sprung from the fallen like the insidious heads of a hydra. Without Subaki and Hana to beat away the pursuing atrocities, one caught her by the shoulder. As it ripped her towards it, her staff fell from her grip and she felt excruciating heat radiate down her back.
Though she had been trained to dull pain, this was a step above the scrapes and bruises she was used to and had been so sudden she didn't have the chance to steel herself for it. In the Faceless' grasp, her bone was crushed to dust.
Her attempts to fight back were abysmal. She swung wildly at it but she never made contact with its grotesque form. Even if she had managed to hit it, she did not possess the strength to cripple or even stun it. As her thoughts began to numb beneath the intense haze of her decimated shoulder, another Faceless, or perhaps it was the same one, captured her head in its grasp. She would have opened her mouth to scream if the stench of it, unholy and rank, had not been so sinister and revolting. She feared it might suffocate her.
Its fingers dug into her skull and it began to twist like her head were the lid to a jar. Her teeth ground together and the force of it could have stripped the enamel from the bone. It would only take one sharp twist to snap her neck and turn her as limp and lifeless as a ragdoll.
Thoughts racing dangerously fast towards a singularity of all consuming terror, Sakura acted on pure instinct and habit, groping blindly for purchase upon its rotting flesh, hoping to conjure a ward of the same strength and power that she'd summoned earlier. Through sheer luck alone, she managed to touch it. And her instincts failed her.
Instead of repelling it, Sakura healed it.
Instantly, it dropped her and the jolt from hitting the hard ground thrust her briefly into the emptiness of unconsciousness. When, seconds later, she came to, she was assaulted by the worst sound she had ever heard, or would ever hear, in her life.
The Faceless was screaming. It gripped at its head and clawed out chunks of it, flinging rancid flesh everywhere. As it continued its own self destruction, Sakura crept away from it, gripping her ruined shoulder with trembling fingers.
When a glob of rotting flesh landed in her lap, horrid realization overcame her. She hadn't healed its body for it was beyond repair; she had healed its mind. Beneath the knowledge of its own infernal existence, it began to deteriorate.
After it had torn itself to shreds, Azama took its place, grinning down at her.
"Does that hurt?" he asked, pointing to her shattered shoulder. Through gritted teeth, she spat, "Yes."
Stiff heat crept along her chest and up into her shoulder, prodding at the crushed mess. In an instant, the bone was reformed and the muscle restrung. With a twinge of envy at his speed, Sakura rolled her shoulder and nodded to him in thanks.
"Don't expect my help again," he said and she scowled.
When he left, Sakura had a clear view of the hole her sister had formed in the wall but no view of her sister. She could only assume Corrin had been knocked unconscious by the collision.
As Sakura rushed to her sister's aide, another Faceless reached for her. This time, Sakura ducked out of reach and darted past it, praying it would lose interest. When it didn't and swung at her again, she brought her fingers against its flesh and healed its fragmented mind. Ignoring its blood curdling shrieks as it ripped itself to pieces, Sakura turned to the smoking hole in the wall. As she stepped through it, she nearly screamed aloud when a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her against the back of the wall.
Sakura's heart calmed at the sight of her sister but her breathing refused to steady. Corrin looked like death.
Blood caked her entire face and hair, turning the silver roots crimson, and the parts of her that weren't drenched in red were ashen gray from the dust kicked up by the collision. Debris poked out of every inch of visible skin. Her expression through the grime was one of utter mania.
Sakura offered her palms, saying, "Let me heal you."
Corrin did not respond. Her eyes burned and her grip tightened around Sakura's wrist. The battle continued to rage behind them but Corrin didn't seem to notice or to care. In the dim light, her gaze seemed to waver between malevolence and terror.
Is it happening? Sakura thought, too frightened to cry out.
As if to answer, Corrin's grip left Sakura and moved to the Yato's hilt, drawing it in a single fluid pull. Sakura stumbled away, raising her hands as if they would be any use in stopping an attack.
Corrin's brow furrowed in mingled confusion and betrayal and Sakura's tension dispelled immediately. Her hands fell heavily to her sides and shame reddened her face.
Without a word, Corrin turned away and an expression of withering cold slid over her face. She brought a hand to her chest and wheezed instead of deeply inhaling.
Sakura moved to her without her request and knit her bones back together in silence. Neither acknowledged what had happened.
When Sakura had finished, Corrin rasped her thanks and moved for the battlefield once more. It was as she stepped through that the battle ended all at once.
Two voices unified in sweet harmony whispered above the din of battle. They burrowed into the Faceless, reducing them to mush, and stayed Sumeragi's hand. His hesitation allowed for his quick defeat and Sakura was surprised to learn that she felt something in witnessing it.
It was Hinoka that struck the final blow, piercing their father clean through the chest in the same fashion with which he'd felled Takumi. Sumeragi fell without a sound, dropping first to his knees and then collapsing completely.
Corrin took off, clearing the distance to their siblings in a matter of seconds. Trailing in her dust, Sakura questioned, Has she always been so fast?
As Sakura reached the others, Hinoka ripped her spear free of their father's chest cavity. The tip of it was inky black. Disgusted, she wiped it against her leg, turning the cream fabric into midnight.
Takumi reached them moments later and was immediately ensnared into a massive group hug. In the huddle, Sakura was squeezed between her two brothers and thanked the gods that Takumi wore no armor. Otherwise, she surely would have been squished.
Amidst their tearful reunion, a voice called to them. It was unfamiliar to her but a long-missed sound to her siblings.
"My children," Sumeragi said and his voice was his own, no longer warped by Anankos. It was gruff and reedy but warm, fatherly. Hot tears collected in Sakura's eyes but she blinked them away. She would let nothing mask the sight of her father.
A shared idea led them all to kneel at his side, all five of them, and they huddled together, silently asking, Has our father returned to us?
At their gathering, a smile split Sumeragi's withered face and he said, "Look how you've all grown."
A flurry of movement and Hinoka slid her hands beneath his head and angled it towards them so he could see them properly. He smiled and Sakura felt a warmth she had never known; the pride of her father.
"Sakura heal him!" Ryoma commanded frantically and she found herself trying to, even though she knew nothing would come of it. His body was already dead; her ability was useless. All she could do was mend his wounds so that his face was no longer disfigured by gore.
"Please, save your strength Sakura," her father said as she failed. "The song has given me clarity but I am not much longer for this world."
She nodded lamely, folding her numb hands in her lap. Beside her, Takumi laid his hand against her shoulder and she collapsed into him, questioning how she had ever gotten by without him. His presence was relief and euphoria; it allowed her to forget the terrible plight they all suffered for a brief moment. Then their father laughed, a pitiful wheezing laugh, and she was brought back to reality far too soon.
"To think that it would take thirteen years for me to find my way back to you," he said and Sakura found a laugh burbling through her lips. Similar, pathetic laughs emerged from her siblings and their father smiled again.
"My darling children, there is so much I wish to say to each of you but there isn't the time. Even now, I feel my soul escaping."
"Father," Hinoka sobbed, tears streaming freely down her face. Sumeragi turned his eyes to her and said, "Hinoka, when you were a child I used to say that the world trembles in your wake. I'm so proud to see that it still does."
Hinoka squeezed her eyes tightly closed. Lines of quicksilver tears raced to the curve of her jaw and trailed down her throat, dampening the top of her shitagi.
Sumeragi's gaze moved to Takumi and, under it, her brother snapped upright like a soldier coming to attention. His lips tightened into a white line and his brow was iron. As their father began to speak, his posture wavered and his expression elongated.
"The injustice I have caused you is unforgiveable but I hope that you will remember me as I was, not as I am."
Takumi nodded and his affirmation was thick. Sumeragi smiled weakily and continued.
"Your mother always said that you had an archer's hands. She'd be so joyous to know that you've overcome her every expectation."
Head hung low, Takumi no longer looked upon their father. He curled in on himself and a reoccurring thought flitted through Sakura's mind.
How has he come back to us?
Seeming to sense her inner turmoil, Takumi glanced towards her and, for a split second, Sakura saw something stirring in his eyes. But then their father was speaking again and Takumi turned from her.
You're seeing things, she chided. Refusing to dwell on it further, she listened to her father.
"Ryoma, my eldest son." I always knew you would surpass me and I'm so honored to have borne witness to it."
"Father," Ryoma responded stiffly. Like Takumi, Ryoma's posture was rigid as Sumeragi addressed him. Unlike Takumi, it didn't falter as their father continued.
"I always knew you would grow to surpass me. I'm so honored to have borne witness to your strength. Raijinto could have no better wielder."
When Sumeragi had finished, Ryoma stared down into his hands. Slowly, he opened and closed them, seemingly transfixed by the empty space there. His expression never broke.
By the time Sakura realized that their father was addressing them individually, it was her turn.
"My little Sakura, it is my greatest regret that I was not there to watch you blossom."
There was a weight freed from her chest and she wondered what it had been. Until it had left her, she hadn't even known it was there. Her vision was hot and her cheeks grew wet but she wouldn't avert her eyes like her siblings before her.
She would burn her father's face into her memory and etch his heavy gaze into her very soul. 3
The air was tense from the gaze of nosy onlookers and Sakura wished they would leave them be.
Give us a moment's peace, she prayed, just one moment out of the public eye.
Her prayers went unanswered. Royalty was never to know privacy.
"Corrin," Sumeragi crooned, head lolling in Hinoka's hands, "We never should have gone to Cheve."
Corrin laughed a tittering laugh and there were tears in her eyes. Sumeragi reached for her with a feeble hand and touched her face. A twinge of envy pinched Sakura's stomach at the sight but when her father spoke for the last time, her blood ran cold.
"How I wish you had been mine," he said and then he passed.
Sakura thought maybe she saw a wisp of smoke racing towards the ceiling and childishly hoped it was his soul finally escaping to the heavens.
As the life left his body, Sumeragi's hand fell away from Corrin's face and she pushed her fingers against where it had been like she'd been slapped. Beneath the grime, the color had drained from her face.
Ryoma was the first to speak.
"Corrin-"
"Did you know?" she demanded and her voice was ice.
"No."
Corrin looked at each of them, staring hard and angry into their faces. When she came to Sakura, her flinty expression broke. Then she stood and left them.
None of them went after her. After thirteen years, they finally had a father to lay to rest.
A/N: So it's the new year and this story is still without an ending. In my defense, my computer died on me and it wasn't until this past week that I've been able to replace it. :(
This chapter holds the record for the longest as of yet and it just sort of... happened lol. Hopefully, it proves to be an enjoyable return to this fic.
I'll make this A/N short since I've made you read so much already and just say that unhinged Leo is a monster to write lol
Numinous-Alqua: Glad to hear it! Creepy was definitely what I was going for!
Darkwolf259: I hope you enjoy it on your reread!
