Author's note:
Oh wow, 2020, what are you even...? Who set the world on fire?
So I've spent the last three months juggling moving flat and starting a new job - plenty distracting, not helped by incidental one shots.
In the meantime I've scrapped about three versions of this chapter, and wrote the entirety of what is here this week. One of the advantages of social life being cancelled I guess. To be honest it's been good to get some distance from this story and come back with a fresh direction. Should be at least three or four more chapters before I can bring this to its conclusion.
Thank you for you patience, and enjoy the read! Definitely won't be as long before the next chapter. Heart.
Chapter 16: Making Peace
Lucina dreams once more of war. Her dream self meets a young Tharja, all eyes for Robin, keen to hex anyone in her way. Henry, a face she'd encountered once before, becomes part of Chrom's shepherds. They look so young, so tortured, it takes Lucina some work to recognize Noire's luxuriant Mother, and Libra's relaxed partner from Plegia...
It's a big surprise to Lucina when her dream self lets slip that she is Chrom's daughter. Two years enjoying the relative peace before the Valmese war made her sloppy. Still, it's nice, she feels lighter. When Princess Lucina awakes that morning it's with tears of joy in her eyes. If Chrom questions why she feels the need to give him an extra-long hug at breakfast, he does not say.
She's taken to watching her father do his religious work in her free time. He suggests it when she turns eighteen, and she finds she quite enjoys sitting in the large cathedral as he delivers sermons alongside the Halidom's most senior priests.
It's peaceful there. It smells of incense and flowers, candle wax and ink on parchment. The stained-glass windows glow, sunlight casting the intricately painted scenes across the floor, onto the walls... She hears hymns dedicated to Naga and tales of her ancestor Marth. It feels right.
If she sometimes chooses to spend her free time here even when its empty, who's going to judge?
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Hm?" Lucina snaps back awake. She takes in the empty library, the dusty tomes on the desk around her. Robin closes the book that was open in front of her. His eyes, brown she notices, are looking at her more directly than she remembers ever noticing.
"My apologies," she mumbles, brushing back her hair as she feels her ears burn. "It seems I was away to fall asleep."
Robin chuckles. "You always speak more proper when you are tired." His words seem to catch him by surprise, and he stands straighter. "I mean..." He coughs awkwardly, cradling the book he was carrying in his other hand. "There are better places to take a nap."
He doesn't give her time to respond, turning on his heel and leaving promptly. As he reaches the door, he waves with a quip. "If you need more time for that essay, just say the word!"
This kind of dynamic is a stark contrast to the one she shares with him in her dreams. Where in the waking world Lucina is working with her father's tactician on further advancing her knowledge of the Halidom's inner workings and political machinery, business-like conversations sometimes stuttering into awkward exchanges like this one, in the dream world... Well...
Lucina shakes her head and lets out a small laugh. Dream-Lucina is so wary of the Plegian Tactician. Lucina understands the distrust, knows that it stems from a childhood watching her father's ostensibly best friend brood and snap at the slightest interruption, that it takes root in her recognition of the six-eyed sigil on his robes that match those of Grima's Risen-summoning mages. Her dream-self finds that Dream-Robin's voice is similar to Grima's, much to her dislike... In her dreams she's always on edge around him, eager to find fault, paranoid that he might not grasp the importance of her mission. It's hard, in her dreams, to trust in his tactics, his schemes, even when he proves himself time and again. Dream Lucina has had to come up with plans by herself for longer than she cares to remember. That was the burden of being exalt before her time, in a world tumbling into apocalypse.
Only waking Lucina isn't that Lucina. She has the luxury of always travelling with a masterful tactician. young Morgan takes over Miss Morgan's mantel, with Robin's blessing. Though the outings of her Shepherds are rarer now that her friends are branching off into varying careers of their own choosing, they still make time for them. Their trips across land and sea are something she cherishes, and her father knows better than to suggest she puts an end to them...
In fact, he's the reason she's feeling so tired. She stayed up late at Chrom's request to tell him all about her latest trip. She smiles, stands, and tidies away the books, making sure to take her notes with her as she leaves. It's still sunny out, maybe she could take a short nap in the courtyard, under her favourite tree? She chuckles remembering Robin's gentle rebuke. She knows the story of how her father met his tactician well.
She awakes this time to a gentle nudging. The warmth of the sun has dwindled, the leaves rustling above her head. She sits up feeling well rested, and notices who nudged her. Gerome smiles down at her, his face calm, his hair slicked back as always now.
"Ah, thank you Gerome," she says, rubbing the last of the sleep out of her eyes. She feels odd, and then realises why... She'd been dreaming...
It wasn't unusual, for her dreams to intrude on a nap, sometimes, but it was rare. Usually just a snippet, a taste of what was to come later that night...
"You are welcome, Lucina," Gerome says simply. He has one of his numerous embroidery projects in hand. He must have been sat near her for a while. "Morgan was looking for you."
"Was she? Where is Morgan?" Lucina stands, brushing down her tunic, wondering what her friend might need her for. It can't have been urgent if Gerome let her rest on after finding her.
"She's in her room. Said to send you there when you are free." He nods at her vacated spot. "You looked like you needed the rest. Brady did say you took quite the hit in the last battle."
Her hand reaches for her side. Brady's good at healing, even if now he's focussing on his violin skills. She forgot about that injury. It certainly offers another explanation for her tiredness. Lucina gives a small chuckle.
It's nice that Gerome isn't keeping his distance from her anymore. It's poetic, in a way – her dream was about hearing finally of dream-Gerome's whereabouts. But there's still this distance, she feels, between her and this unmasked Gerome who is content to sit and sew.
It's silly, Lucina thinks, to miss his taciturn, mono-syllabic and masked counterpart. That Gerome wasn't what you would call happy, but... She remembers him as her shadow, soothing and protective despite his grim mannerisms. He always seemed to be on the same wavelength as her dream self, his every thought and emotion somehow obvious to her where to others he was a blank canvas.
Yet this Gerome, with his open face and easy smile, is a complete mystery to Lucina.
"I had better not keep Morgan waiting," she says, with a short bow. He nods, returns to his work.
Lucina is several steps away when he adds: "You forgot your notes!"
He laughs as, flustered, she sprints back for them.
When Lucina chaps at the door to Morgan's room, she's answered by what sounds like a sob...
"Dad, I swear, if that's you...!" The voice is gruff, broken. Morgan is clearly upset. Lucina can't remember Morgan being truly upset beyond when Miss Morgan left and that one time when Lucina's trip to Valm was cut short.
"Morgan, it's me, Lucina." Lucina says. She keeps her voice even, not wanting her worry to come through. "If this is a bad time..."
The door creaks open, revealing a tear-stricken Morgan. The girl's hair is wilder than usual, her eyes red, her mouth in a downwards curve that looks foreign on her face. Lucina's heart pangs.
"I..." Morgan doesn't get very far before she throws her arms around Lucina's torso. She speaks words that are lost, muffled by more sobs and Lucina's jacket. Lucina frowns. Putting an arm around the girl, she pushes into her room and shuts the door. No one harms one of her friends. She's going to get to the bottom of this.
"Hey," the princess says, pulling Morgan down to sit on the bed with her. "It'll be alright. Let me know if there's anything I can do."
The girl's tears soften, a small hiccup rattling her frame as she relaxes into the hug. Lucina feels her shake her head.
"It's... It's not anything you can change..." There's a slight hesitation. A sniff. "It's just hard to process, and I..."
Lucina waits for Morgan to elaborate, but no further words come. Morgan's grip on Lucina's tunic tightens, and the Princess frowns.
"Is it something your father Robin did?" she asks, remembering Morgan's angry tone when she knocked. Lucina's mind jumps to the other possibility, considering Morgan's reticence to see her father. "Did something happen with Kjelle?"
"What? No!" Morgan's face finally emerges, beat red with embarrassment at hearing Lucina bring up her girlfriend. "Kjelle and I are fine... I... Didn't even realize you'd noticed..." She ends in a whisper; mortification slowly replaces grief on her features.
"Then what is it?" Lucina asks, tilting her head. She reaches up to smooth back some of Morgan's hair.
Morgan crosses her arms, fully sitting back so she can bring her legs up. She glares across the room at the diary on her desk. Lucina recognises it. Wonders...
"It's a dumb dream thing..." Morgan says petulantly. "You know how I'm ahead of everyone in our shared dream timeline?"
Lucina nods. As the disparity in continuity between the groups' dreams became obvious, most of Lucina's shepherds had agreed to not share any important details with anyone they knew were behind them. It made things a little awkward for Lucina, seeing how she was further behind most of them by a good two years, but she respected it. No one wants to hear second-hand about the time they got caught in one of aunt Lissa's traps before they reached it in the dream. It'd spoil the fun, as Brady had so aptly put it.
"Well..." Morgan says, hesitantly. Her lips move around as she thinks how to phrase it. "I found out something. Something I... Wasn't too happy about."
"Was... Was that why you asked for me?" Lucina asks, feeling her stomach drop. It had to be important if Morgan was choosing to speak of her dream's contents with her... Beyond the usual 'it sucked today' or idle comment about delicious food.
"No silly," Morgan shakes her head, the beginnings of her normally perpetual smile making a comeback. "It was about my dad. I'm annoyed about it, because I should have seen it coming, and when I tried to talk to him about it, he took it the wrong way. Ugh."
Morgan flails dramatically onto her back, her long sleeves floating down after her.
"I asked you here because you actually listen, even if you don't always seem to pick up on the subtext," here Morgan gives her some side-eye. Clearly Lucina's comment about Kjelle has her reassessing that last notion. Lucina feels her cheeks flush.
"Don't worry, I won't spoil any future dreams for you." Morgan continues, staring at the ceiling with a carefully neutral expression. Lucina still manages to detect some sadness in it. Morgan's brown eyes turn to hers, her brows furrowing into a pleading expression. "I just... I just want to hang out with you for a bit, if that's okay?"
Lucina hesitates, still unsure of what the issue is, but smiles.
"Of course." She nods and places her hand Morgan's shoulder. "Shall we read together for a while?"
And just like that, Morgan's smile is beaming once more.
