Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem. Fire Emblem belongs to Intelligent Systems and Nintendo.
"Absolutely not."
Robin quailed a little under Frederick's glower. The last time he had looked this annoyed, the Shepherds had been sentenced to Frederick's Fanatical Fitness Hour en masse. It had taken them more than a week to recover, and Robin still got queasy thinking about it.
Why not?
She dropped her gaze to the piece of ink-splattered parchment she'd placed on his desk. This had been her fourth draft, and was the cleanest of the lot. Even so, every stroke of her stylus had created another crack in her heart.
Frederick crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair a little. "We are set to leave on the morrow. The Ylissean army cannot do without a tactician at this critical juncture."
She frowned. The army would be far from bereft if she was no longer tasked with guiding it. There was still Frederick and Virion, not to mention the Khans.
It's vital that we win this war decisively, she argued. If they lost, the spirit of Ylisse would falter, Plegia would be emboldened, and more lives would be senselessly lost.
Frederick stared at her, unblinking. "It's good that you know that. Now, if there's nothing else, I—"
We've been at a critical juncture before. Robin's face burned, but she forced herself to go on. We cannot afford to fail again.
There.
She'd said it.
So why did her heart feel heavier than it had before?
"We didn't fail."
Robin stared at him, incredulous. What are you talking about? Of course we failed!
Frederick sighed the same sigh he'd sighed when he'd first started training her.
"Twenty-seven."
Robin folded her arms and waited for him to continue.
Apparently two could play at that game. When it became obvious that Plegia would fall before he did, Robin gritted her teeth and decided to make the concession.
Twenty-seven what?
Frederick's expression turned grave. "With only a fraction of the forces we have mustered today, only twenty-seven were lost when we faced the might of Plegia."
Robin scoffed. That was still twenty-seven too many—especially considering that one of those twenty-seven had been the Exalt of Ylisse.
Twice.
"Whatever you may believe, no one who was there considered their efforts to be a failure. Rather, we considered it to be a miracle." Frederick leaned forward, his face set like the flinty side of a mountain. "And I would thank you not to affect the morale of the troops so close to battle."
Our objective was to save the Exalt! Robin's fingers were a blur, and the tightness in her chest made it hard to breathe. And we—I—it made no difference in the end! How is following the person who failed to save the most important of us all going to keep up our morale?
"No difference?" Frederick's low chuckle was all sharp edges. "Tell that to everyone who survived. Tell it to their families. Tell it to a country whose royal line has been preserved."
Robin's fingers fumbled after an answer, but only found more self to loathe.
Not waiting for an answer, Frederick picked up her letter of resignation, his lips curled as though it were bear meat rather than parchment. He waved it at her to punctuate his point.
"Tell it to the Crown Prince of Ylisse who ground himself into exhaustion while he waited for his most important one of all to return home to his side!"
She flinched as every word struck her heart, swift and deep and merciless. Her head dropped under the weight of her own shame.
To be fair, Frederick hadn't been her first choice when it came to officially taking responsibility for her failure. It was just that every time she'd tried to broach the topic with a certain blue-haired lord, he'd just look at her until she forgot what she was doing or he'd simply lean forward while she was distracted and kiss her. She wasn't getting anywhere with Chrom, and she couldn't put it off any longer.
"Robin, your pride has been wounded, as has your heart. Time is the remedy for both. You will get nowhere by running away."
Ha. So very ha!
I'm not running away.
He raised a brow. "Are you not?"
She shook her head, refusing to meet his eyes.
"After everything, do you still mean to resign?"
Robin nodded sharply, the admission hurting her far more than she had thought it would.
"Fine." Frederick tossed the parchment onto his desk and shuffled through some of his files. "Then I'll need you to read through this and fill it out."
She jerked her head up as she took the paper he'd shoved into her hands. Her eyes narrowed as she read the opening line.
—I, the undersigned, being of sound mind and body, do wish to enlist into the Ylissean army—
Enlist? The Ylissean army? Was this some kind of joke?
"There's a war on." He answered her glare with one of his own. "Congratulations, you've just been conscripted. Now sit down so we can go over your qualifications and military experience."
Robin gripped the paper so hard she wrinkled the edges, but didn't dare revolt. The very unloving look Frederick was giving her promised that any resistance would be both futile and painful. She sat down stiffly, every line of her bristling with fury.
It hadn't been easy working up her courage to write her letter of resignation, let alone to approach him. And now, here he was, pressing her back into service.
"I see from your previous files that you have little by way of experience outside of your specific field." Frederick scanned her file, perfectly serious and committed to this farce. "It just so happens that we've lost our tactician this morning, so your timing is most fortuitous."
Timing her foot! What in the heck—!
"Your phobia of heights and horses has been noted, and while they will present some difficulty," he smiled, or, rather, politely bared his teeth, "There is nothing we cannot overcome if we all work together!"
Wait. What did he mean by—A deep cold spread through her gut. Surely he wouldn't . . .
"That which builds character is always to be commended. I'll send someone around to make sure you are properly kitted out. As you are affianced to the future Exalt of Ylisse, the barracks will no longer be suitable for you. As such, other accommodations will be provided."
Robin waved her hand at him to back up to the important part. What exactly do you mean about overcoming? She was perfectly comfortable with her phobias, thank you very much! Nothing to overcome here. As for character growth, her character was exactly the right height for someone her size.
"We will be departing in the morning. As such, you will need to report to your superior an hour prior to our departure."
Wait a didn't answer my—
"A current plan for our strategies should already be in your possession. Make certain you familiarize yourself with it prior to reporting to your superior."
Frederick!
"On behalf of the crown, I thank you for your service. Now, if there is nothing else, there are other matters I must attend to."
A second later, Robin found herself standing in the corridor, the door to Frederick's office latched and locked, and the form for her conscription still in hand.
What in the heck had just happened?
"Hey ho there, Master Tactician!"
Robin raised her eyes, blinking at the girl standing in front of her. A girl who might well have been her if she'd been a few years younger, and if she'd always had pale hair and purple eyes. Her eyes widened as she recalled that this was not the first time they'd met.
How had her hallucination managed to follow her into this realm?
More important: Why was she hallucinating?
"Don't worry," the girl waved her hands, her eyes bright and curious, "I know you can't talk here. Rules are rules, right?"
Thoroughly befuddled, and more than a little disoriented, Robin nodded. She was nowhere near her mastership, but she wasn't in the mood for a written conversation. What she really needed to do was to go kill another sword on one of the many trees on the palace grounds.
How's that for character building?
Besides, talking to her hallucination would only encourage it to persist, wouldn't it?
"So, about the war." Her hallucination paused, glancing at her from the corners of her eyes as though weighing something. Her forehead scrunched up a little before she shrugged. "There's really no way to properly explain this, so you'll just have to trust me, but I think I've found a secret weapon we can use."
Maybe she should find Chrom. Even if her hallucination managed to follow her, she wouldn't notice it anyway.
Robin's cheeks went warm and she covered her mouth with her hand. Perhaps she shouldn't distract him now. There was still so much to be done before they set off for Plegia on the morrow.
Her hallucination huffed and stomped its foot. "Are you even listening to me?"
Right. A responsible tactician would do all in her power not to distract her absurdly handsome general.
Wait.
Where . . . Where did that come from?
"Grrrr! This is important! Come on!"
Robin froze as she felt her hallucination clamp down on her wrist. After that, she didn't have any time to do anything else as it dragged her out to the far corner of the practice yard.
It . . .
It had touched her.
Dragged her behind it.
Did that mean it was getting stronger?
If that were the case, did that mean she had become more deluded? She had already lost her memory. Did this mean she was also going to lose her mind?
"Ricken! Nowi!" her hallucination shouted.
"Over here!" Nowi waved at them and gestured for them to come over.
With every step that took her closer to the mage and the manakete, Robin felt her misgivings grow. Since when were other people able to see her hallucination? And anything that involved Ricken and Nowi individually generally led to a headache of varying degrees.
But with both of them together . . .
"Hey, Robin!" Nowi smiled brightly. "Long time, no see!"
Robin gave her a weak smile before turning to Ricken.
Who was studying the pile of rocks in front of him as though his future had been etched on them.
What's going on here?
"That's what I was alluding to," her hallucination said, then smirked. "Remember the secret weapon I was telling you about? Well, wait no more! Here he is!" She gestured grandly toward Ricken.
Robin massaged her forehead. Maybe she was the one cracking under all the stress. In which case, seeking out Chrom might actually help.
No.
She couldn't distract him.
Robin couldn't help frowning at the three who seemed neck deep in cahoots.
For now. She wouldn't distract him for now.
Ricken?
"Oooh!" Nowi leaned forward, scattering the rocks until she dug one out from near the bottom. "I think this one was glowing. Go on and give it a try."
"Just don't get your hopes up," Ricken said as he accepted the stone. "It was stolen before I had properly channeled my magic into it, so even if this is the one, there's still no guarantees."
"Sure, sure." Nowi patted him on the head like a master indulging her pupil. "Less talk, more focusing."
Robin was just about to demand an explanation when the stone Ricken was holding lit up like an aquamarine bonfire.
"See? I told you!" Nowi jumped up and down with glee.
Despite her reservations, Robin leaned forward, intrigued. What kind of spell had Ricken worked? From what she could tell, there was no heat radiating from the stone, just light.
Light that was steadily growing brighter and brighter.
"Uh, we may want to step back a bit," her hallucination said, pulling her away.
They had only just managed to jump behind a tree when something exploded. The blood drained out of Robin's face and turned to ice in her veins.
Nononononono! This couldn't be happening.
She wrenched her arm away from her hallucination and ran over to where Ricken and Nowi had been, only to pull up short when she realized there were two dragons crowding that corner of the practice yard.
"Wheeee!" Nowi squealed as she performed a series of loop-the-loops. "I knew it was gonna work! Isn't this amazing?!"
The other dragon, a deep blue with copperish undertones, was sitting there with a dazed expression on his face. "Not quite what I expected, but not horrible either."
Robin blinked at him. His voice sounded awfully familiar . . .
"What's with the explosion though?"
"Amazing! That's what is was! Amazing!"
"Well, is that a secret weapon or is that a secret weapon?" Her hallucination beamed at the sight before them. "Who knew what was hiding under all that angst and gigantic hat?"
R-Rick-Ricken? It took a few tries to get her fingers working, but it didn't really matter because no one was looking at her anyway.
Robin sat down abruptly when her head started spinning. She was losing it, wasn't she? First her hallucination, and then Ricken.
Ricken!
How was she going to explain this to everyone? Even dealing with a down-on-their-luck noble family meant that things could get complicated fast. Throwing a manakete into the mix and—
A manakete!
Somewhere, somehow, Ricken's family had to have at least two manaketes in their bloodline. And that was the best case scenario. What if his whole family . . .
Suddenly the fact that they didn't quite fit in at court and that they only ever very rarely appeared in Ylisstol made sense.
Did Chrom know?
What about Frederick?
Haha. Robin could almost see the weary resignation in his expression already.
On second thought . . . Had she been the only one in the dark?
"Huh." Her hallucination crouched down beside her, a look of concern furrowing her brow. "I thought you'd be a little happier about this. I mean, I'm pretty certain everything's going to go well, but it's always nice to have a good back up plan. And what could be better than a dragon?"
Why? Why was all of this happening? Robin clutched her head and tried to slow her breathing. That moment when she'd thrown her whole self into saving Emm. She'd felt something inside her . . . fracture. Had reaching beyond her own strength broken something inside of her?
"So, uh, how do I turn back?" Dragon-Ricken asked, the coppery spots on his cheeks glowing brighter.
Nowi stopped loop-the-looping long enough to snort at him. "You can't be tired of being a dragon already, can you? I mean, what's it been? Seven or eight hundred years of being stuck in your human form?"
"Five." Dragon-Ricken shook his head. "Hundred, I mean. Five hundred."
Robin's hallucination waved her hands in front of her face, but when she realized she wasn't going to get a reaction, she shrugged and walked over to the dragons.
Dragons!
"So, I was wondering. Are dragonstones a special class of rock or would any old rock do?"
Nowi landed gracefully before turning back into her more human self. "Kind of?" Then she tapped Dragon-Ricken on the forearm. "Just close your eyes and allow your magic to pour back into the stone."
Dragon-Ricken nodded before closing his eyes. The air around them became charged right before another small explosion went off. Once the air cleared, a slightly charred Ricken reappeared.
"See?" Nowi beamed like a proud mother. "You'll get the hang of it the more you practice."
"I'd better," he muttered, taking out a small book from his robe. "I'll bet Miriel could help me come up with a series of experiments designed to decrease the forceful combustion to more comfortable levels."
"Awww, you're no fun!" Nowi made a face. She turned around in a huff and was about to run off when Robin's hallucination caught her by the arm.
"Where's the best place to look for potential dragonstones?"
Nowi narrowed her eyes. "Why do you want to know?"
Her hallucination snuck a peek in Robin's direction. "There's just been some things I've been wondering and trying to piece together." She held out her hands. "Having the magic, the blood, and ability don't do you any good if you don't have a dragonstone to focus through, right?"
Nowi hummed her agreement before her eyes went wide. "Wait! Are you—Do you mean?!"
The hallucination nodded.
Laughing, Nowi grabbed her hands and spun them in circles. "How awesome is this? A thousand years alone, and not another manakete in sight. And now? Hahahahaha! I knew Gramps was a good luck charm!"
Robin held her head in her hands, trying to find cool reason and quiet deduction.
What if her eyes and hair weren't the only changes done to her? What if it had been her mind, not her heart, that had fractured?
What could she do if that were the case?
Chrom . . .
He would still love her, she was sure of it. But he was going to be the next Exalt once they finished dealing with Plegia. If she were to be his consort—he'd need to be able to rely on her.
Would he still be able to do that if she'd gone—or was working on going—crazy?
"Hey." Nowi bent down to peer deep into Robin's eyes. "You aren't a manakete too, are you?"
The urge to laugh was met by an equal urge to cry, and Robin really wasn't sure which one she wanted to do more. Haha. Maybe she was looking at this all the wrong way. Maybe she wasn't the one who'd gone crazy.
Maybe it was everyone else who had lost their minds.
After all, she'd know if she'd lost it. Wouldn't she?
Or was that what all crazy people comforted themselves with while what was left of their minds slowly unraveled?
"She's a little . . . complicated," her hallucination explained, using the same voice healers used when discussing things with children or people who had snapped. "Not really one, and not really the other, you know?"
Nowi's face scrunched while she tried to make sense out of nonsense. "Ah. The best way to tell would be to try using a touchstone."
"Why not a dragonstone?"
"Because even baby manaketes have to start somewhere," Nowi said as though she was declaring the sky was blue. She reached into a small bag she'd sewn into the lining of her cloak and pulled out an amber colored stone that fit perfectly in the center of her palm.
"Pretty!"
Ricken was busy scrawling down a book's worth of notes, and from the unrestrained glee on Nowi and her hallucination's faces, Robin was fairly certain that she should intervene.
What if they blew something else up?
"I think so too! Every great clan has their own way of creating touchstones. This one was mine when I was a baby."
The hallucination took the touchstone with all the reverence of accepting a rare and precious treasure. "I'm assuming that to operate this, I just need to open my magical pathways and allow them to commingle with the stone?"
Nowi laughed and shook her head. "Nope! Just hold it in your hand until it grows warm. After that, either you'll get a taste of your heritage or a little nip."
"Little," the hallucination raised a brow, "nip?"
"It's not that big of a deal," Nowi laughed and waved her hand. "For it to keep it's ability to power a partial transformation, it needs magic. If you're a manakete, channeling your magic will be enough. If you're not, then it just takes a little nip out of your spare magic. No biggie!"
Yes, Robin thought as she forced herself to her feet. She should most definitely intervene.
"Oooh! It's getting warmer! I can feel it!"
Robin hesitated. It was never a good idea to interrupt magic in progress.
"Nice, isn't it?"
The hallucination nodded, eyes wide as she drank in the beauty of the stone.
"Just a little bit longer, and oh!" Nowi clapped her hands. "It's gonna glow! I can feel it!"
But not interrupting wouldn't be the responsible thing do to either. The last thing any of them needed was to accidentally take out Ylisstol in a failed attempt to become a dragon.
Besides, a manakete would know whether she was a manakete or not.
Wouldn't she?
The hallucination laughed. "Ah ha! Is it supposed to make me feel all fizzy and tingly on the inside?"
"Like laughter and bubbles and the wide open sky," Nowi affirmed.
Robin sighed. She had to hold it together. Just a little longer. Long enough to repel Plegia once and for all. After that, well, she'd get to that when she got there.
Perhaps Miriel had a spell for banishing hallucinations.
Words would be useless here, even supposing they were able to understand her. Instead, Robin reached out with a grimace to pull her hallucination away from Nowi.
The little corner of her mind that had been panicking ever since she'd met her hallucination outside Frederick's office expanded until all her other thoughts fell away.
The arm she'd grasped felt warm and real and . . . there. And while Robin had not yet made a formal study of it, she'd read a few books on the subject of the mind. There had been a few references to conditions that tricked the mind well enough to deceive the eyes, but from what she'd been able to gather, while the hallucination could mimic any of the five senses well enough to pass for real, the person who was doing the hallucinating couldn't.
Logically, that must mean—
Robin shoved the thought away before it had time to fully arrive. For all of this to be real, there would have to be so many coincidences and "lucky" nudges from Fate for it to be anywhere near credible.
There was no younger version of her that could hop between realms. Ricken was a—well, he was his usual self at the moment, and that was as far as Robin dared to take it.
A sudden flash of light broke her out of her thoughts, nearly blinding her in the process.
"Whoa!"
"Haha! I told you it would glow, didn't I?"
Robin blinked furiously as she waited for her vision to return. Which, it turned out, had been a mistake.
"I feel incredible!" Her maybe-not-a-hallucination grinned, big and toothy with far more teeth than she'd had originally. She inspected herself, swishing her new tail and flapping her tiny wings hard enough to hover just above the ground. "So why didn't I transform all the way?"
"Because this is just a touchstone. It's for helping you find your way. To properly use your magic, you'd have to make your very own dragonstone."
Robin put a hand to her chest. Her heart was racing so hard, it was on the verge of beating its way out of her chest. As for her lungs, no matter that she was breathing so hard the air had turned to fire, she couldn't breathe fast enough to fill them.
She staggered as her head went suddenly light.
Black spots began to dance in her vision, but they were nowhere near enough to blot out the partial transformation her possibly-a-hallucination had undergone.
It was as if someone had taken a human girl and a baby dragon and had smashed them together.
Not really one, but not really the other either.
Robin clutched her head as her thoughts took the voice of her maybe-a-hallucination.
"Don't worry, I've got more than enough experience to help you with that. And a whole lot of pretty rocks for you to choose from!"
Ugh! Her temples throbbed with her heartbeat until it was nearly all she could hear.
"Really? When can we get started?"
"How about now? I mean, I don't have anything—uh, Robin? Are you okay? You look kind of—" Nowi's voice went abruptly fuzzy and dim as the dark blotches in her vision expanded right before sweeping her away.
Taking her to a place, she fervently hoped, that neither her hallucination-or-not, nor her consciousness could follow.
"Will she be okay?"
Robin frowned as the voice made its way into her mind. She had been floating contentedly in a nice, dark place where everything behaved as it ought to, and there was nothing around her that could suddenly change shape.
No worries.
No surprises.
Just nice.
Peaceful.
Quiet.
"Yes," a voice she almost recognized murmured.
"What happened?" Nowi demanded. "She was fine one minute, and then keeling over the next!"
"From what I can tell, this is just a simple case of exhaustion." Libra, Robin's mind supplied. The person talking was Libra. A war monk they'd met on a battlefield in what felt like a hundred years ago. "All she needs is to rest quietly to regain her strength."
"Oh," her hall—someone else breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. So we should probably go for now, right."
"It might help." Libra's voice was velvet warmth, and she could almost see the smile he'd hidden along the edges.
"Right. We'll take care of everything for her so she can rest."
A sudden panic invaded what had been left of the peaceful quiet, but by the time Robin had been able to force her eyes open and sit up, Nowi and—everyone had gone.
Except for Libra.
"You should probably lie down a while yet," he said. "At least until you've regained some of your color."
Robin shook her head and waved her hand at him. There were pressing matters she needed to attend to, and she could always rest later, after the war had been won.
Libra smiled and caught her as she staggered to her feet. "It appears they did not exaggerate. Very well, where would you like to go?"
Robin frowned as she reached half-heartedly for her pockets. Her vision was still a little fuzzy, and if she hadn't been exerting significant pressure on her hands, they would have been shaking.
"I've learned enough of your language to understand if you sign slowly."
Ha. Finally something was going right!
Frederick.
Libra nodded. "It's a bit slow in the infirmary at the moment, and it would be nice to take a walk. Do you mind if I accompany you?"
Robin wanted to decline, but from the way he was gripping her arm, she realized his question was more of a formality and that he wasn't really asking at all.
She pressed her lips together and nodded. Was it a requirement that healers look soft and nice on the outside, but were really bossy on the inside? Even so, he was allowing her to leave the healers' ward. At least Libra wasn't as much of an iron-fisted tyrant as the other healers she'd had to deal with.
"Very well, then. Let's be off."
If anyone had asked Robin to give an account of how she made it from the healers' ward to Frederick's office, it would have been a very short account.
She was there, standing in front of his door, so obviously something had to have happened somewhere in between. It's just that she wasn't entirely clear on what that something had been.
Libra was frowning at her, but he knocked on the door without saying anything.
"You may enter," Frederick's voice boomed through the door.
"Would you like some assistance?" Libra asked.
Robin shook her head. Thank you.
He pressed his lips together before bowing his head. "You should rest after you take care of your business here."
She smiled and nodded, which only served to deepen his frown. But before he could start laying out even the smallest of decrees, Robin gave him a cheerful wave before braving the grizzly bear's den.
"Yes?" Frederick asked, not looking up from the document he was studying.
Robin pulled the articles of her conscription out of her pocket and placed it on his desk. When he didn't respond, she nudged it closer to him.
He drew in a breath and looked up at her, but whatever reprimand he'd settled on went unsaid. He gaped at her for a long moment.
You can't, she said, doing her best not to look like the craven tactician that she was, conscript me, I mean.
Frederick narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"
She pointed to the first sentence with a particular emphasis on 'sound mind.'
"Your amnesia will not be an issue." He steepled his fingers as he regarded her. On the surface, Frederick seemed calm and at ease, but the glint in his eye warned her that she was treading on his very last nerve.
But I see things!
"You and everybody else in our army."
Robin waved her hands. No! What I mean to say is that I see people. Person actually. A person who isn't really there. Or wasn't, until she was, and now other people can see her, and people are turning into dragons left and right, and I—
"We've already settled this, Robin." His gaze pinned her in place like she was one of the bugs Miriel had fastened to a card and hung on the wall of her office. "It will do you no good to pretend to have lost your mind. You are going, and you will be serving in your present capacity. Understood?"
But I'm not pretending. Robin dropped her gaze and twiddled her fingers.
Frederick didn't say anything for a long while. Once Robin had garnered enough courage to peek at him, she found him staring heavenward in quiet supplication to Naga.
"Why don't we start at the beginning?"
Robin nodded, her heart still pounding furiously.
"Why are you so convinced that you're no longer of sound mind?"
Because a hallucination I met in the other realm followed me into this realm.
"How can you be sure this, whatever it is, is a hallucination?"
Because no one else could see it. Robin frowned as she did her best to recall exactly what had happened in the other realm. It walked through people, like it was a ghost, and it didn't seem like it could touch anything.
"What were you doing when it appeared?"
Robin sighed. Trying to find a way to get back home.
"Ah." Some of the ice on Frederick's brow melted a little. "And now?"
Now, it's as solid as the rest of us. It talks to other people—and they talk back. Robin laughed a little unsteadily. It even turned into a dragon, partway.
"A dragon?" Frederick sat up, his eyes narrowed.
Yep. Oh, and it also decided that Ricken would make an excellent secret weapon.
"Ricken?" Frederick's expression was slowly turning from icy superior to bewildered bystander.
Robin nodded. Trust me. No one would see him coming.
She was still trying to come to terms with the fact that Ricken was a manakete—and she'd been there to witness it for herself.
Frederick pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for a moment. As the silence stretched between them, Robin fiddled with her cuffs. It was not her intent to stay behind while everyone else went to fight for Ylisse, but she couldn't believe that many would be happy to follow her orders.
Not after she'd failed to save the Exalt.
She could not bear it if she failed again.
Just as Robin was beginning to wonder if Frederick—who was clearly overworked—had fallen asleep, he opened his eyes.
"Could you describe your hallucination to me?"
Robin frowned. I already did.
"No, what I mean is, could you describe what it looks like?"
A lot like me. Only younger by a few years. It has the same coloring I have now. Her frown deepened. It even dresses like me—at least when I'm in uniform.
Now that she thought on it, her hallucination dressed in the same attire Robin had originally worn when Chrom had found her in the field. Was her hallucination really a part of her mind that had splintered away?
Did that mean her memories of her past might be intact, just inaccessible?
But almost as soon as the thought formed, she rejected it. Why would Nowi and Ricken have heard and responded to it if it was just some run-of-the-mill hallucination? And how would it have held the touchstone and turned into—whatever you called half a human and half a dragon?
"Ah," Frederick said as though everything was suddenly clear. "So you've met Reflet."
Reflet?
Hmm. Although her voice was bound in this realm, Robin still tried the taste of it.
Reflet.
The name was unexpectedly familiar on her lips, although she had no idea why it would be, if she'd only just met her now.
Unless she hadn't.
Had they known each other from before?
Why did that thought sit uneasy in her gut? If this Reflet person was with the Shepherds, that meant she was good, didn't it?
But why would she dress and look like Robin?
Were they . . . related somehow?
And what in the heck had happened in the other realm?
Frederick gave her a grim smile. "I'm happy to say that your concerns for your mental health are unwarranted. If it makes you feel any better, Reflet tends to have that effect on everyone she meets."
From the haggard lines along Frederick's face, Robin had a feeling he was speaking from personal experience.
You-you're sure about this?
He nodded. "Feeling as though you've gone crazy is the sane reaction to spending any time in Reflet's company."
Robin nodded, feeling somewhat cast adrift. She should be happy, shouldn't she? That she was physically and mentally fit to serve Ylisse.
"Time, Robin," Frederick said with unusual gentleness. "With time, you will be able to look at your experiences with a proper perspective. I had not thought it possible, when we first met, that not only would you become an ally of Ylisse, but an asset as well."
Robin ducked her head. Frederick handed out praise the way a miser parted with gold. Were it not for the sincerity ringing in his voice, she would have thought he was just trying to lift her spirit with empty words.
"You will have to learn, as do we all, that no matter your ability nor your innate talent, you will not be able to save everyone every time." His voice sounded far away as though he was standing in a different time and place. "War and peace do not come without cost."
By the time she had mustered up the courage to look at Frederick, he was shaking his head at a memory she couldn't see.
"That doesn't mean losing people won't break your heart. It will. But knowing this, understanding your duties, those are what will help you piece your heart back together after all is said and done."
Some of the ice in Robin's gut thawed. It wasn't often that Frederick the Wary lowered his walls enough to reveal that he had a heart, let alone how big it was. Frederick the Wary? Ha! More like Frederick the Greatheart . . .
Hmmm. On second thought, that sounded more like a celebrated horse, rather than the knight himself . . .
"In the meantime, you will remain Ylisse's tactician." Frederick flourished something onto a piece of paper and handed it to her. "You will, however, report to the healers' ward immediately."
Confused, Robin stared at the orders he had given her.
Covered in soot?
Lightly charred?
With an unnatural pallor and unusually excitable?!
Robin looked down at herself and found, to her embarrassment, that she did look as though she'd spent the morning sweeping the chimneys in all of Ylisstol. Ricken's explosions hadn't been all flashing lights and sparkling magic after all.
It was the last charge, however, that had her gritting her teeth.
Unusually excitable? The words she'd signed all came to sharp points. She was hardly some "perfumed and pretty" lady at court.
Frederick crossed his arms and raised a brow. It was surely just coincidental that his gaze dropped to the articles of her conscription that rested on his desk.
Fire bloomed in Robin's cheeks, and she swiped the papers into her pocket. Obviously she'd mistaken his need to keep up morale for having a heart. Heart? Ha! No one who had even a smidgeon of a heart would sentence another person—who was of sound mind and body!—to the disgusting cocktails of concoctions and vulneraries haunting all the dark corners of the healers' ward.
She shuddered.
"Ah, Milord, perfect timing."
"So I see." Chrom nodded at him before turning to Robin. "It's good to see you up and about again."
His smile obliterated the indignant grudge against Frederick she'd been nursing, along with most of the day. Bit by bit, the knots in her gut, the ice in her veins, the fear and the guilt tracing cracks against her heart eased up.
Everything would be all right.
It had to be.
Oh, you too, she signed belatedly.
The smile in his eyes deepened until that was all she could see.
At least until Frederick cleared his throat.
"If I might trouble you, Milord?" Frederick paused until Chrom recollected himself enough to look at him.
The world dimmed a little bit the second he looked away.
"It would be good for Robin to have her health evaluated once more before we leave. Originally, I was planning on escorting her there, but there are a number of other things that require my immediate attention."
Robin's jaw dropped. He was what, now? And how dare he—!
"Of course." Chrom slipped his hand into hers, and she found she couldn't quite hate Frederick.
Maybe, if she was lucky, Chrom would help her dispose of the concoctions when the healers weren't looking. There were any number of potted plants that would benefit from her donations.
As they turned to leave, Chrom pulled up short. "Oh, that reminds me. There's a hippo situation in the courtyard."
"Hippo? Situation?"
Chrom nodded and continued as though hippo situations were a common occurrence. "I was rounding up Shepherds to help Reflet deal with it."
Frederick the Stoic's perfectly blank facade cracked in half at the mention of Reflet. Robin hid her face—and her snigger—in her sleeve.
"I'll see Robin safely to the healers' ward. In the meantime, do you mind leading the charge? We'll head over once she's been given a clean bill of health."
"Right away, Milord."
Was it her imagination or had Frederick gone a little green around the edges? As much as he looked like he wanted to drag his feet, he quickly donned the rest of his armor.
Robin would have liked to have given Chrom a quick peck, but she didn't quite dare. Frederick had already been properly terrorized, and he hadn't even come into direct conflict with the hippo yet.
She could be magnanimous when she needed to be.
Thank you. She looked up at Chrom.
His cheeks went light pink, but his ears were smiling. "For?"
She shook her head and leaned into his side as they ambled toward the castle. Words would always fail her in the end. For now, it was enough to be by his side and to find comfort in his steady warmth.
As they neared the entrance to the castle, Chrom stopped. He looks down at her, a blush already making its way to the tips of his ears.
"I couldn't do this without you, Robin."
There were a thousand different counterarguments rushing toward her lips, but with effort, she swallowed them down.
She nodded. Nor I without you.
"I'm happy to know it." He gave her a smile that was all sunshine and laughter and wide open skies. "Frederick would be annoyed if he had to conscript you more than once."
Robin's eyes went wide. She gaped at the back of his head as he led her into the castle and down the corridor. He—he'd known all along?
As though following her thoughts, he squeezed her hand gently and glanced at her over his shoulder.
Her surprised indignation burned itself away and she found herself squeezing his hand in return.
She was home—more home than she'd ever been, and she aimed to keep it that way.
So, about my orders. I only have to put in an appearance at the healers' ward. Help me feed some plants?
A/N: Happy Valentines day! I have a special Valentine surprise*, but first-
When I'd first set out to write this chapter, the original conversation regarding Robin's resignation had Chrom present. For some reason, Frederick worked out so much better.
*a quiet moment for Frederick's dedication to his duty under the unwavering craziness of the people surrounding him*
I've enjoyed the way Frederick and Robin's relationship has evolved from suspicious to grudging respect to genuine care. This conversation wouldn't have been possible when they first met, and even a long while after.
And Reflet? Reflet's just icing on the cupcake. :p
As for Ricken-I've been waiting for a good while to reveal his secret. Originally, I was going to mention it when they were headed for Plegia and came across Gregor and Nowi, but the characters had other ideas. Ricken, in this story, appeared as a manakete almost from the beginning. It made sense with his backstory, but it's not something most people at court are aware of. Plus, it was always kinda sad to me that if Nowi married anyone, she'd have to watch him age and die in the space of a manakete minute. I like happy endings. Plus, I've a feeling that Ricken would be a good ally for Nah to rein in some of Nowi's crazier impulses. :p
The ending took me the longest to write-nearly two weeks. I knew Chrom would need to say something, but he remained uncharacteristically coy right up until this morning. . The wait, however, was worth it.
So yay! One step closer to Plegia!
*On that note, I'll be uploading a chapter to a short story (it was only meant to be a scene, but it turned out to be a bit longer than that) that I've promised for a while. Since this will be the royal engagement sans R!Chrom, I wanted to get it uploaded today in honor of Valentines Day. Sweetness and fluffy Chrobin to come!
Have a great week!
Daisy Party: Indeed! Those are my favorite moments in the story. :) Aww, thank you so much! I hope you continue to enjoy. :D
