A/N: Yeah, I hate this as much as you do, but in the grand scheme of things...you'll see why I had to punish myself this way.

When Azura opened her eyes, it was dark. Save for the flickering candle on her nightstand and a small crack between the curtains in front of the windows, the room was completely dark.

Azura frowned as she realized that she was almost completely naked underneath her bedsheets, save for her smallclothes. Clutching the blanket to her chest for modesty, Azura slowly sat up, wincing as she felt a pounding headache assail her forehead. When the pain stopped, Azura forced her eyes open and looked around the room.

"Corrin?" she called out gently.

Something moved in the darkness and Azura squinted towards it as she heard a chair being pushed back along the floor. A figure walked towards her, and for a moment, Azura was hopeful that it was Corrin, though it was soon tempered by disappointment when she realized it was none other than the healer that had declared her pregnant in the first place.

"Ah, zo vu'fe redurned to us, milady!" the doctor exclaimed, joyously clasping his hands together. "How do vu feel?"

"Not great," she admitted. Azura winced again and rested a hand against the side of her head when another wave of headaches pounded her forehead. "I have a pretty bad headache."

"Ah, zat vould be ein hunfordunate zide effect of zee antidote, milady," the doctor said apologetically. "Vut vorry not! It schall fade in due time."

"Antidote?" Azura asked. She lifted her hand against from her head as she looked around the room. "Wait, why am I in my room? What happened? Where's Corrin?"

"Mein, zo many gueszions!" the doctor said, pushing his glasses up with a finger. "Vorry not. Allow me to fetch your huspand. He is just houtzide. He schall tell vu vat habened."

Despite the gentle smile plastered across his face, Azura noticed how the doctor looked uncharacteristically nervous. Azura watched silently as the doctor rose from his chair and opened the door. She heard a few muffled words passed between him and what sounded like Corrin's voice, and then Corrin's silhouette stepped into the room.

"Azura?" he croaked. "Azura, are you there?"

Azura was shocked at how tired he sounded. Just a few minutes ago, before she passed out, Corrin's voice had been full of life and energy. Deep, yet playful. Solid, yet warm. Now Corrin just sounded…tired.

"I'm over here," Azura called softly, smiling at him. "On our bed."

She couldn't see Corrin moving around in the darkness but judging from the almost-silent curses under his breath and the occasional sharp intake of breath, Azura guessed the floor must be littered with something. After a few moments, Corrin's face finally appeared, bathed in the flickering orange glow of the candle next to Azura.

His red eyes were full of worry and something else Azura couldn't identify. After a moment, Azura started as she realized that it was fear.

Corrin gingerly took Azura's hand in his own, almost as if he couldn't believe she was here. Azura felt the worry inside her intensify when she felt how much his hands shoo, as if he had seen something particularly jarring or horrifying.

After a moment of silence, Corrin cracked his parched lips open and rasped, "Azura?"

"Hmm?"

"Are…are you alright?" Corrin averted his gaze away from her eyes. "How do you feel?"

"Apart from a slight headache, I feel fine," Azura said. She gave him a smile and turned her hand over so they could interlock fingers. "It's going to take a lot more than a black-out and some bad salad to keep me and Ada down."

Azura was expecting a sigh of relief or witty jab from Corrin, but to her concern, all he did was purse her lips and squeeze her hand. "I wish it was just a bad salad," he said, surprising Azura again with the bitterness in his tone.

"You were poisoned," he suddenly said, looking up at her. "Kaze, Lilith, and Otis did some investigating and it turns out you were poisoned."

"Poisoned?" Azura gasped. Hands flew unbidden to her mouth. "Me?"

Corrin nodded gravely. "We…we managed to figure out that the poison was wyrmsbane, a type of berry that comes from a rare plant in the Spine, Nohr's most dangerous mountain range."

"Wyrmsbane…" Azura said, letting the word roll off her tongue. For some reason, even the mere sound of the word caused her to feel a shiver down her spine, and as she saw how tense Corrin seemed after merely saying it, she knew he felt the same way about the poison.

"Let me guess, the plant is toxic to those of us with dragon blood inside of us?" Azura asked.

"Only the berries," Corrin clarified. "According to Lilith and some old journals she brought from the Rainbow Sage's library, the leaves of the plant itself is actually very healthy. It supposedly helps keep our scales clean and our breath fresh, but the berries themselves are like poison to us. Even one could potentially send me into a heart attack, and I already have a strong resistance to most poisons because of my blood."

"I'm surprised I lived then," Azura mused. "If one of those berries could almost kill me, imagine how it would affect a normal human."

"That's the thing," Corrin said, clenching his fist. "The berry is only toxic to dragons. Normal humans could eat the berry and get a slight stomachache, but dragons who eat it could potentially die."

Azura felt her blood freeze as she realized the implications of what Corrin said. "But…you were the one who ordered the salad," she said quietly. "If it wasn't for me…"

"I would've died," Corrin finished. "But after seeing you like that, passed out on the ground, I would've gladly eaten those berries if it meant saving you and Ada."

"Don't say that," Azura scolded, but only half-heartedly. She took his face in her hands and stared into his ruby eyes. "The important thing is that all of us are safe and alright."

Corrin's gaze fell and this time, Azura could physically feel her blood chill as Corrin whispered, "Not all of us."

"What do you mean?" Azura pulled her hands away. "All three of us are okay, right?"

Corrin gently took her hands in his own. When Azura looked at Corrin, she was shocked see a single tear sliding down his cheek. "Azura…we lost her…we lost Ada."

Azura felt the world freeze around her.

"What?"

Her hands automatically moved to rest on her belly, as if to confirm her child was still there. As soon as the palm of her hands rested flat against her belly, Azura knew that Corrin told the truth. Ever since the baby had first kicked, Azura always felt this energy inside her that came from the baby. It was as if Azura could sense Ada's life, but when Azura rested her hand on her belly, she felt no such energy.

Tears leapt unbidden to Azura's eyes as she stared at her stomach, unable to process what was going on. Corrin, who had remained stone-faced and silent the entire time Azura had checked her stomach, suddenly turned his head away and made a choked sound in his chest.

She knew Corrin was trying to hide his tears from her to make her feel better, but Azura didn't care. She didn't care about anything right now. She just…didn't. She felt empty.

When she faintly registered Corrin's hands taking her own and squeezing it, she squeezed back. When the doctor and his assistants cautiously peeked into the room a couple hours later to check on them, the two of them were still crying.