Corrin
"Hey. Get up." Corrin slowly opened her eyes, groaning as Shura shook her. "You're on watch duty."
"C'mon, I'm too tired," the little girl whined, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I'd just fall asleep again."
"Yeah, well, you gotta keep an eye out anyway. It's a good learning moment." Shura headed towards the exit of their hideout. "If you're asleep when I get back, you're gonna be in big trouble." Corrin, still half-asleep, stretched before heading to the hideout's entrance. She looked around the sewer tunnel it was connected to, watching the usual crowd of fellow peasants walk around. They were situated in a small bazaar, tucked in enough to blend in.
Corrin unsheathed her knife and began playing with it. Though it was way too big for her small hands to get a proper grip on, she still enjoyed fiddling with the thing. She played a game of five-fingered fillet, stabbing the ground between her fingers, being careful to avoid cutting them. However, even with her effort to avoid it, she eventually ended up nicking her thumb. She winced, bringing it up to her mouth and sucking on the cut. It was then that she noticed a blonde girl looking at her.
"Do you have any money?" the girl asked. She couldn't have been older than 10, around Corrin's age. She was wearing rags, barefoot and covered in dirt. "I just need a few coins, nothing big. Please."
Corrin felt anxiety rising in her chest. "No, get lost," she said, trying her best to sound intimidating. She didn't like guard duty precisely for this reason. Dealing with strangers was something she still hadn't quite gotten used to, especially when so many had less than generous motives.
"Please," the girl said again. "It's my mother, she's sick, and I need—"
Corrin interrupted. "I said get lost!"
"But if I don't get anything—"
Corrin grabbed the girl by the collar of her ruined dress, creating a small tear without even trying. "Get out of here!" She held up her knife. The girl ran away, crying in fear. Corrin sighed, sitting down and setting her knife aside. "I hate guard duty…" she muttered.
"Why did you drive her away?" someone asked. Corrin looked around, but she couldn't find the source of the voice.
"She was probably gonna rob us," Corrin said to the mysterious voice. "And besides, I wasn't gonna give her any money. That's our money. Mine and Uncle Shura's. We need that money."
"The girl had a sick mother," the voice pointed out.
"She could've been lying," Corrin said. Someone emerged from the crowd of people, walking up to the little girl. She picked her knife back up, but stopped once she realized who she was looking at.
The woman was her. Older, with a blue cape and a scar on the edge of her lips. "You didn't trust that girl," she said. Corrin nodded. "Even though she was just like you." Another nod. "Why?"
The younger Corrin looked at her doppelganger. "I can't trust anybody. Trusting people is bad. The only person I can trust is Uncle Shura."
"And what about Niles? Rinkah?"
"I haven't met them yet. And when I do, I won't trust them at first." The younger Corrin looked down at her knife, reflecting her face. "Trusting people gets me hurt."
The older Corrin looked at the knife as well. "If we had trusted in people…do you think Sakura would've lived?"
Suddenly, the older Corrin was all that was left, standing in a white void. She looked around, her memory returning. That's right, she was in Krakenburg. She was trying to break the Yato. And now she was…here. Wherever "here" was.
As Corrin thought about her siblings, about Sakura, the white began being filled. A room surrounded her. It was the entrance to Castle Shirasagi. Behind her was the sound of people chatting amongst themselves, but it was shrouded in shadow. She couldn't see anything back there. And in front of her was the door leading out of the castle, closed.
Corrin stared at that door until someone passed by her. She didn't recognize the man, but he didn't bother talking to her. Instead, he slid open the door, revealing a blinding white light on the other side. He stepped through, vanishing within it. More people followed, emerging from the black void behind her. Men, women, children. Some looked confused. Others, happy. There were even expressions of sadness. But none of them were hesitant. They all walked past Corrin and through the door.
"Excuse me?" someone asked, tapping Corrin on the shoulder. She turned around, staring at a girl with gray hair and a red hood. Corrin could see wolf-like ears underneath the hood. "I'm looking for someone. Have you seen him? He's really important to me. He should be nearby. He always is."
At first, Corrin had no idea who she was looking at. But then, she recalled. "You're…one of those Nohrians. With Siegbert."
"Siegbert!?" the girl exclaimed. "So you have seen him! Where is he? I've been looking for him for so long, but I can't find him anywhere. I can't go without him."
"Go where?" Corrin asked. The wolf girl simply pointed to the exit, where people were still leaving through. "How do you know he's even here?"
"Well, I didn't. Not for a long time. But just now, I felt like he was here. And I just can't go until I find him." The girl kept looking around. "Siegbert? Darling, where are you? Siegbert!" Some people glanced at her, but nobody stopped. "Siegbert…" Corrin felt her stomach sink as she began to realize where she was.
"Velouria?" a voice rang out. Velouria gasped, running towards the source. Siegbert stepped out of the crowd, and the two tightly embraced. "There you are. I've been looking for you."
"Oh, Siegbert. I've missed you so much. It was so cold, and quiet, and dark. I didn't know where I was…"
"I know, Velouria." Siegbert rubbed her back. "I know. I am so sorry. I shouldn't have left you. I shouldn't have let Peri find you. I'm the reason she put you in that place. I'm sorry…" The two continued their embrace for a while longer. Siegbert looked over at Corrin. "Ah, it's you. But why are you here?" Corrin didn't know how to answer that. "Nevermind that. While you're here, can you possibly relay a message for me?"
"Um…" Corrin nodded. "Sure? Yeah, I think I can do that."
Siegbert smiled, ending his hug with Velouria. She took his hand as they both faced Corrin. "Tell Soleil that I'm sorry I couldn't stay. She'll be sad when she knows I'm gone, but…I did what I needed to. I stopped mother. And if I had to leave in the process…well, I can't change that now, I suppose. So just…tell her I wish her the best. And that I hope she can be happy."
Corrin nodded. She wasn't going to pretend she knew what Siegbert was talking about, but she'd tell Soleil regardless. "With that…" Velouria gave Siegbert a peck on the cheek. "We should get going, shouldn't we? My parents must be waiting for me. Yours, too." Siegbert nodded. The two walked past Corrin hand in hand, smiling as they stepped past the door and into the place beyond it.
Corrin realized that the crowd of people were talking amongst each other. Perhaps she just hadn't been paying attention to their voices before then. "Mommy, is it over?" A little girl asked.
"Yes, it is," a woman answered.
"Odetta's waiting for me…" a girl said.
"It's so warm…so bright…" a man muttered, walking through the door.
Eventually, the crowd began to thin out. Less and less people entered the room as more and more left it. Until finally, there was only one woman left. She stared at Corrin, brushing some of her cream-colored hair out of her face. "Hello, Corrin."
"Do I…know you?" Corrin asked the woman. She shook her head.
"No, you don't. But I know you." The woman walked up to Corrin, taking her hand and running her fingers over her palm. "I've been waiting for someone like you. I've waited for so long. And you're finally here. Here to free us."
"Free you?" Corrin looked down at her open hand. "Oh…so this really is what I think it is."
The woman nodded. "You can feel it, can't you? The absence of power. The sky full of souls. The Yato has been destroyed. And with it, the Divine Weapons. All of the souls trapped within Ganglari are now free. Myself included." Someone approached from behind the woman: an outline of a little girl, but one whose features Corrin couldn't make out. No, beyond that, she couldn't seem to see the girl at all. It was if she wasn't there, but yet Corrin knew she was. The girl was confused, looking up at the two women before her.
"Where am I?" the girl asked. "I'm not supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be in Windmire."
The woman got on one knee in front of the little girl. "You don't need to worry about that anymore. It's time to leave."
"No!" The girl shouted. "I'm supposed to be in Windmire! I'm supposed to be my own person! All I need to do is burn it. Once I burn down Nina's world, she'll go away! She has to! Then it'll just be me, and I can finally be who I want to! I'm so close! I am! Don't make me go!"
The woman wrapped her arms around the girl as Corrin realized who she was. "Skadi," the woman said, lovingly rubbing the back of her head. "You can go now. It's okay."
"But I…" The girl began to sob. "I was so close…I just wanted to be somebody. To be a person…" She buried her face into the woman's shoulder as she cried. Corrin watched them for a while until, with the woman's help, Skadi finally began to approach the door. "Do you think…I can be a person out there?"
The woman nodded. With that, Skadi headed to the door. She hesitated right in front of it, tentatively reaching a hand out to touch it. "It's…" she whispered. "…So warm…" She stepped through, disappearing from Corrin's view. The woman smiled.
"Did she really deserve that?" Corrin asked. "That kind of sympathy?"
"We were all victims," the woman said. "The Divine Weapons, too. Simply caught in the whirlwind of one fatal mistake. No one deserves to be blamed." Corrin hadn't considered it that way. But she supposed it did make sense, in a way.
"So I'm dead, then," Corrin said solemnly. "I died destroying the Yato. And now I just have to pass over to whatever's next."
"Not quite," the woman said. "You stand on the precipice of life and what's next. You can join us, taking the plunge into the unknown. But if you'd like, you can go back. I won't tell you what to do. It's your choice to make, and yours alone."
"I'm so tired," Corrin admitted, looking at the ray of light shining in through the door. "After everything. I'm ready to rest. But…no. I know there's still more for me to do. There are people I have to come back to. Friends. Family. They're waiting for me." Hearing that, the woman nodded. "Besides, I'll be back here someday. But I wanna make sure that when that happens, I'll be ready for it. That I won't have any regrets about stepping through that door. So, I won't be going. Not yet."
"Very well. I admire your tenacity. Then, I suppose it's my turn to go. It's funny. I've waited so long to be free, and now that I'm here, I'm…scared."
Corrin put a reassuring hand on the woman's shoulder. "You can make it. I know you can."
The woman smiled at that, nodding. You're right. It was so nice to meet you, Corrin." She headed for the exit.
"You too…" Corrin said quietly as the woman stepped through, vanishing into the light. "…Saria…"
The room was silent. The only one standing there was Corrin. The dark, which was once filled with voices, was now silent. The people who needed to leave, did. She was the last one.
Or so Corrin thought. Her attention was drawn to the dark as she heard footsteps echoing through the room. Stepping out of the shadows was a young girl, the last to leave. She looked at Corrin and offered up a smile. In response, Corrin felt herself sinking to her knees, tears immediately streaming down her face. "Sakura…"
"Hello, Corrin." Sakura approached, holding her hands in front of her, looking no different than she would in a happy memory. "It's nice to see you."
Corrin almost threw herself onto her sister, hugging her tight as she could, afraid that her sister would vanish if she didn't hold on. "Sakura…Sakura!" Sakura gently rubbed the top of Corrin's head, running her fingers through her hair. "It's you…it's really you…"
"Corrin, I…I have to go. You know that."
"No!" Corrin insisted, sobbing. "No, I…I can't lose you again…"
"It's okay, Corrin. You can let go. You're strong."
"I don't want to…I don't want to…" Corrin kept crying until there were simply no more tears to shed. "Sakura…I'm a failure. I couldn't save you. I just stood there. I'm so weak."
"No, you aren't. You're so strong, Corrin. Stronger than anyone. Nobody else could do what you did. That's why I'm okay with leaving. Because I know that you'll be there for everyone." Sakura smiled brightly. "So take care of them for me, okay?"
Corrin nodded, sniffing. Sakura walked past her and towards the door. "Sakura!" Corrin shouted. The younger princess turned around. "I love you, little sister." Those words seemed to hang in the air, settling within both of them.
Sakura smiled once more, letting out a short giggle. "I know. I always knew. I love you, Corrin." She stepped through the door, shutting it behind her. Corrin turned around and headed into the darkness.
Corrin coughed, her eyes fluttering open. She sat up, looking around at the ruined throne room. The bodies of royal guards had been strewn about. The ceiling was gone. The throne itself was now scarred by a gigantic crack running down it. "She's alive," someone said. She turned her head to see Elise looking at her, clutching her chest. "Xander, she's alive! Corrin's alive!"
Camilla's angered grunting pulled Elise's attention back to Xander. He was standing above Camilla, who laid on the cold floor, her face covered in blood. She had no axe. "She's alive…" Camilla muttered. "Why am I not surprised…?"
Xander stared down at his sister with a dark expression. "Well then…" Camilla mumbled. "Isn't it time you do it already? You've already picked up a blade." Xander looked down at the sword of a royal guard in his hand. "A traditional Nohrian execution for a Nohrian traitor. A fitting end." Xander gave a conflicted gaze. "Oh come now, don't tell me you haven't got the heart to do it. It's either this or a jail cell. That is, assuming the people don't kill me once they learned that I was the one who murdered their king. Go on, brother. It's poetic for you to be the one to do it."
Xander stood there. Neither Corrin nor Elise said a word. It was as if he and Camilla were the only ones in the world at that moment. "Did Leo…" Camilla coughed roughly, hacking up blood onto her gloved hand. "Did he have a pleasant funeral? Did you bury him somewhere nice?"
A solitary tear ran down Xander's cheek. "We buried him in a field. We didn't have time for anything formal. But something tells me he'd…he'd have preferred that." He paused, taking a deep breath. "Do you regret it, then?"
"No," Camilla said softly but firmly. "I'd do it all again. But I am glad, regardless. Leo deserved more than I could give. You all did." She closed her eyes, smiling. A few seconds later, Xander let go of his sword, letting it fall to the floor. Without another word, he walked away. Corrin stood up and walked after him, equally silent.
It was when the two of them neared the way out that they heard the telltale sound of metal cutting through flesh. They both turned around, seeing Elise holding the sword, having just sliced Camilla's neck open. The sisters gazed at each other as the life faded away from Camilla's eyes. Then, once that life was gone, Elise gently closed her sister's eyelids. She laid her forehead atop Camilla's, closing her own eyes. Then she stood up with blood smeared on her forehead and left without a word. Corrin and Xander followed.
The moon and the sun began to separate. As the three royals stepped out into the hallway leading out, sunlight shone down on Camilla's body, illuminating her graceful features. She appeared just as beautiful in death as she did in life. But now, with nothing more in her, her face had something that it never showed before.
A peaceful smile.
