Italics = Thought
I do not own Fire Emblem.
Cross published on A03
The sky was burning, choked by clouds of smoke and the whimpers of the dying. For whatever reason, this was the next memory Grima was forcing Severa to experience.
"What is this?" Selena asked quietly as she surveyed the landscape. Realisation dawned on her that she was in eastern Plegia, what had once been farmland. "Why are we here?"
"You are about to witness something that will cause you a great deal of grief." Grima explained, an apologetic look on his face. "But I have little doubt it will help to explain a great deal."
Slumped against a tree, a mortal wound ripped into his side was King Robin of Plegia. His life's blood seeping from it. He was dying, and he knew it. Chrom had got him with that damned blade in the end.
"Grima…"
Seemingly walking into existence, the spectral younger Grima knelt by the dying King. He appeared to be a duplicate of the King, albeit with shining red eyes.
"I'm sorry…i-it's up to them now..."
"Easy now." The Fell Dragon murmured. "Do you have any final requests?"
"I have..but one.."
"What is it you request of me, old friend?" Grima asked quietly.
"Severa!" Robin wheezed out. "….She's alone in the world now. Alone and forsaken….I ask…beseech you, my friend. Protect and watch over her…and...l-let her know of my f-forgiveness.."
Grima smiled warmly. "Of course, she is as much my daughter as yours. Rest now Robin, your Queen awaits you, and you've kept her waiting for far too long."
Nodding one last time, the last true King of Plegia looked up at the sky and let out a final, exhausted sigh.
"..C-Cordie…"
Lowering his head in profound respect and in mourning his close companion, Grima started to walk away. He could follow Robin into death now, couldn't he?
It was tempting, Grime had to admit. But he had given his word. What was a few more years against the time he had already existed, after all?
It was the sounds of battle that woke the would-be Emperor. He had taken up residence in the Chief's hut. It wasn't exactly befitting for the Emperor of Hoshido, but it would suffice for now.
Rinkah's body was still tied to the cross that they had erected in the middle of the village square. A pair of kunai had been thrust through her wrists, which cut into her when she struggled. Of course, such a brutal manner of death hadn't sat well with all of his troops, and, in the night, an arrow had been shot into her heart by one archer, mercifully ending her life quickly.
Takumi had had the Archer flogged for his insolence.
He threw himself out of bed and stormed onto the balcony. Beneath him, it appeared that the Flame Tribesman that had been slain and left to rot were now slaughtering his own soldiers.
"What the hell is going on?!" The Emperor roared. "Who's attacking?!"
No one could answer him, for they were fighting for their lives. The enemy had attacked at night, so his soldiers were utterly unprepared for when the dead attacked. Many fell quickly, killed in their drunken sleep, but were now fighting back with whatever they could find.
Storming down into the square, he looked around wildly, and soon his eyes fell upon a group striding across the square, ignoring the hell around them. At their head, a dark haired man in blue and white armour. An eyepatch covered his left eye. On his, and the rest of the group all wore teal cloaks with a black ring with a white centre.
Corrin offered a cheery wave.
"Hello Takumi!"
"YOU! Why are you here?! What are you doing?!"
"Oh, it's very simple. We're going to use your dead to attack Nohr and spark a war the likes of which Sigal hasn't seen since the days of Iskandar. All thanks to you, dear brother."
"I AM NOT YOUR BROTHER!" Takumi screamed, and slashed at the King with his naginata.
Corrin caught Takumi's naginata with Raijinto and sneered. "No. You aren't. You never have been. You and your kin lied."
Then Corrin looked to his Blades. "Wipe them out…and someone cut Rinkah down."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Departing his side, the Blades started to go on the attack, with Castor and Pollux quickly losing themselves in the slaughter.
Only his squire remained at his side, Molin threatening Takumi with his simple steel blade.
Lightning crackled across Raijinto's surface, and Corrin let out a laugh. He pointed the famed blade at Takumi, and grinned. Molin then launched an attack, slashing at Takumi in the manner used only by green recruits. The Emperor slammed Molin aside with the shaft of his naginata. The Taguel cried out, and fell to the ground.
"Ha! Pitiful rabbit!"
Turning his gaze at the Taguel for a few seconds, Takumi left a sense of delight. This boy was likely much liked by Corrin, and if causing pain to him caused pain to Corrin, then that was worth it.
His gaze returned to Corrin, and brought his weapon up swiftly, Raijinto nearly taking his head off.
There they fought, sparks flying. Rage on Takumi's face, cold concentration on Corrin's. Whilst he could be mad, cheery and warm, when it came to duelling, Corrin often went into a calm sense of mind, focusing solely on his foe.
Soon, Corrin's eye fell on his squire, and smiled. He leapt back, enjoying the shocked look on the Emperor's face for a few moments. Takumi then started to scream as Molin's blade snapped in his leg. He fell to the ground, and writhed in agony.
The King knelt down, taking Takumi's naginata from his side. He stared at it for a few moments, before offering it to Molin.
"I appear to have cost you your weapon, Molin. Apologies. Take this as a replacement"
"I thank you, Majesty." The young boy said earnestly, although the Taguel frankly looked a little ill after his first real experience of combat. Fifteen year olds weren't normally meant to be on the battlefield, after all.
"You did well, Molin." Corrin told in, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Be proud."
"Th-Thank you sir." Molin whispered.
Corrin looked down at the fallen Emperor. His Blades soon returned to his side, Castor and Pollux drenched in red, their dyed purple hair matted with sweat and mud and blood.
"Where is Cana, Takumi?"
"Dead!" Takumi sneered through bloodied teeth. "Your whelp is a fucking corpse! Along with all these filthy savages!"
Rage overtook the King now, he launched his arm forward, twisting it into the whip-like appendage which looped around Takumi's throat. He squeezed and squeezed, lifting him up off of the ground. "Then you die too."
"You can't!"
Modred's words escaped him before he realised what he was saying. As the eyes of his fellow Blades fell upon him, he cleared his throat, and composed himself.
"If you kill him here, Majesty, you deprive yourself and your people of justice." Mordred advised. "Killing him now is little more than murder…butchery."
The Havenite King slammed Takumi onto the ground and, seething, retracted his arm.
"Take him then." Corrin snapped. "Our people want to see justice done. Takumi was complicit in Cana's kidnapping, and I doubt Ryoma will waste more men to get his head after this genocide. Thank you Mordred. I would have acted hastily and in anger."
"It would have been understandable, my King."
"What do we do with this place?" Morgan asked.
Before Corrin could answer, a truly massive fireball screamed across the square, igniting the hut, the inferno quickly eating the wood and rich rugs inside.
Tiene, the former Chieftain limped towards the group.
"You let us die." He demanded.
Keaton raised an eyebrow. "You want to die? Truly?"
"I'm an old man." He snapped. "I've just witnessed my people wiped out. The oldest people in Sigal! The last of the natives! Wiped out by him." Teine gestured at Takumi's prone form. "I am tired. I am facing the end of my culture. If I am to die, I will go to the next world with my daughter."
Kaden looked at Rinkah's remains. He had been the one that had got her down. He could imagine the type of woman she had been in life. Looking at her and her father now, he could understand what Tiene was saying.
"Your daughter is Kana, yes?"
"She is….was." Corrin murmured.
"She is on her way to the Wind Tribe's main settlement. She's not dead, as far as I am aware. Takumi lied to you.."
Bending down, he scooped his daughter's body up into his arms. She had been the only child the Spirits had let him keep. A curious little child, always running and laughing and playing with her friends (and avoiding her tutors). She had done him proud, a true Flame Chief.
In silence, Corrin and the Blades watched the old man stride into the flames, cradling his daughter. With nary a sound, he allowed the fire to consume them both. Then Marc, still controlling the Flame Tribe dead, marched the rest of them in, granting them a somewhat dignified final end. Corrin nodded in appreciation. They had been too late, both for Cana and the Tribe. It was only right that they saw to it that their journey to the next life was proper. The fact that they did not require Flame Tribesmen for the next stage of the plan was an unspoken bonus.
"Loki?" Corrin began, breaking the near reverent silence.
The giant of an Ice Tribesman glanced at Corrin. He was a triumph of Dorian Erised's genius, a ruthless, silent giant. Curiously, the man had actually volunteered for the treatments.
"Find the one that betrayed us. It is time he paid for his crimes." He decreed. "Find the one that reveal our existence to Hoshido and bring him to Haven."
Loki nodded, and, bathed in a cloud of cold mist, he stalked away into the forests.
"Why do you keep him around again?" Pollux asked as he approached, his twin at his side as always. "I find him a tad unsettling."
"That's funny, coming from the man fucking his own sister." Morgan chimed in, grinning as she ducked out of the way of Castor's retaliatory strike.
He's good conversation." The King answered.
Emi allowed a bemused expression to cross her face. "He's mute."
"Exactly. Now, let's begin." Corrin grinned. "Lord Marc, if you would?"
The Plegian Lord allowed a monetary look of disgust to cross his face, one shared with Silas, before turning to face the scores of dead, and, after taking a deep breath, raised his hands.
"IGNIS HECATE!"
Historical Logs: Molin the Taguel
The Taguel people were rescued on the initiative of Marc and Morgan Di Augustina in 6 n.h.c, driven to the point of near extinction, the DI Augustina's managed to save all but one of the last warren. As part of the integration, the then Elder of the Taguel, Satin, requested that the King take one of their number as a Ward.
The Taguel that was chosen for the prestigious position was Molin. The young boy was an orphan, and was initially wary of the King and all humans. But the King apparently treated him like a son, and soon won his loyalty. In fact, Molin would become known as the most fanatically loyal of Corrin I's Royal Blades.
-Excerpt from the book "A History of Heroes", written by Munakata Kaito, circa year 245 n.h.c.