Interviews with a Tactician

by Scourge of Infinis

In which Robin decides to conduct interviews with existing and potential Shepherds to ensure their loyalty and commitment to the cause (and some other details). What could possibly go wrong?

45. Tiki

It's autumn, which means that it's also update time!

...At least one month after I initially planned to upload this thing, but I totally, finally did it. Hooray!

For those of you still out there and keeping an eye out despite the increasing gap between updates, thank you for your patience! I hope the wait was worth it.

Feels kind of weird being one of the few people still having an Awakening story in the sea of 3 Houses, but I shall persevere and see this thing to completion! And it'll be complete, don't you worry about that.

So thank you again, dear readers. Your continued patience and comments are always greatly appreciated.

Enjoy!

---

The training grounds were silent except for the sound of practice swords clacking against each other.

"Urgh."

The girl grunted as her opponent disarmed her.

"Keep your grip on your weapon no matter what. To be disarmed on the battlefield means almost certain death." Her opponent gestured to her weapon. "Again."

The girl nodded and picked up her weapon before getting into a fighting stance.

She lasted seven seconds before being disarmed again.

"Keep an eye on your opponent to try and anticipate his next move. In the heat of battle there are only so many moves available. Anticipating your opponent's actions is the key to survival," her opponent said. "Again."

The girl took a deep breath, picking up her weapon and trying to remember all the advice she received.

Ten seconds in, her opponent made a feint and went to strike her exposed left. Fortunately, the girl realized she left herself open at the last second and, expecting an attack, blocked her opponent's strike.

"Well done."

The girl swelled with pride.

But just as the moment came, it ended, with her opponent taking advantage of her momentary distraction to disarm her.

"Never lose your focus when in combat. Every distraction can be the one that costs you your life, your friends, or both."

"Daddy, can we stop for today?"

"Not until we're done."

"But we've been training for so long…!"

"We would be spending every waking moment training if I had it my way. But since I recognize that you need free time, I have confined our lessons to these specific time slots every day."

"But today feels really long..."

"It's no different than any other time we've trained."

"How come we spend so much time training? Also, you've spent all of today's time hitting me with your sword…"

"We must spend all the time we can to improve your skills so that you can hold your own in combat."

"When will I be able to hit you back instead of being hit again and again?"

"It will take time, but I'll make sure you get there. Besides, you've managed to get some good hits in today."

The girl beamed.

"I'll make sure you'll be the best swordswoman in the realm once we're done," the man said, smiling.

"Does it have to be just swords?"

"You yourself chose swords, have you not?"

"Well, yeah, but I wanna be the best at everything!"

"In time, perhaps. But let's start with mastery of the sword for now. Maybe we'll get you on a pegasus when you're older."

"What about magic?"

The man frowned. "Magic?"

"Yeah! Can you teach me magic?" the girl asked excitedly. "I wanna got around and shoot fireballs at bad guys and lightning bolts at monsters and—"

"No magic."

"No magic?"

"No magic," the man repeated firmly.

"But why not? I wanna be a great mage just like you!"

"Because magic isn't all about casting spells or setting 'bad guys' on fire. Sometimes magic is very dark, and this dark magic fuels your worst impulses," the man muttered, a faraway look in his eyes. "It's a whisper in your mind, constantly trying to get you to lose control and do terrible, unspeakable things. And the power is addictive. Once you have a taste of it, you never forget the thrill of the power and how good it feels to give in and lay waste to your enemies…"

"...Daddy?"

The man shook his head. "So magic isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Besides, you probably don't even have the aptitude for it."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that you're better off focusing on your sword skills instead of dreaming about magic. Now pick up your sword and try again."

"But Daddy…!"

"Pick up your sword and assume your stance, just as we practiced. If you skip today's training, you'll lose to Lucina when next you meet her."

The mention of her friend's name, and more importantly, losing to said friend, sparked the girl's competitive streak (much to her father's satisfaction).

"Come on, Daddy!" she said, picking up her sword, a fiery look in her eyes. "There's no way I'm not gonna lose to Lucina!"

---

That was one of what would be many lessons in Severa's life that honed her skills with the sword and basically saved her life on countless occasions when the world went to hell. Although her father was a tough taskmaster, he was fair and Severa always enjoyed spending time with him.

Which was why she growled as she watched Robin and Morgan training on the field.

"Remember what I told you, Morgan," Robin said as he tested his daughter's defenses.

"Severa?"

"Keep an eye on your enemy and try to anticipate his next move. Keeping one step ahead will save your—HA! Nice block!"

"Severa, what are you doing?"

"Look at her," Severa muttered. "Who does she think she is? Just up and comes in and gets one-on-one lessons with Robin like she's his real daughter or something."

Lucina turned to where Severa was looking.

"Ah."

"And he personally trains her!" Severa exclaimed. "Like, himself! All the time! Paying attention to her like she's the only one in the world and like he's got nothing more important to do!"

"Severa, I understand your frustration, but you might want to ease with the whetstone before—"

Lucina didn't finish her sentence when the sword Severa was sharpening broke in two.

"Like, what happened to planning for the war? Or doing the diplomatic rounds?" Severa continued, throwing the broken sword to the side and picking up another one as if nothing happened. "Or even doing training with others? Morgan isn't the only one who's out there who needs a session!"

"Severa, I think you should calm down and—"

"And how come he spends so much time with her? Is he even allowed to play favorites? He spends more time with her than anyone else!"

The sword snapped even faster than the one before it.

"Ha!"

Morgan parried Robin's latest attack and proceeded to go on the offensive.

"What are you doing, Morgan?" Robin asked, disapproval evident as he deftly held his ground against his daughter's assault.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm turning the tables!"

"Morgan, this was supposed to be your lesson in defensive swordplay."

"I know! And everyone knows that the best defense is an overwhelming offense!" Morgan chirped, trying to strike Robin down with a series of hits.

"That strategy only works if you can overwhelm your opponent," Robin said, deflecting each of Morgan's attacks. "Which we've already established that you cannot. AND we've also established that risky strategy leaves you wide open if you miscalculate your opponent's abilities."

"I didn't miscalculate. I'm totally gonna take you down with my next round of attacks!"

"Even if I do something unexpected?"

"Like what?"

"Like this!"

Robin suddenly kicked out.

Morgan grunted as she staggered back, just barely managing to keep her balance. When she recovered enough to get into a fighting stance, Robin was already on her. And much to Morgan's surprise, he was attacking her with a practice sword in each hand!

With Morgan not being able to last very long against Robin when he decided to push her on a good day, Robin attacking her with two swords resulted in Morgan getting stomped even faster than usual.

"Oof!" Morgan grunted as she fell on her back.

"And that's what happens when you ignore your training and try to take on an opponent that you really shouldn't. If this was a real fight, you'd be dead." To emphasize his point, Robin poked Morgan's forehead with the tip of his practice sword.

"But my strategy would've totally worked on anyone else!"

"How do you figure?"

"If this was a real battle, I'd be able to do my due diligence and do a quick check on my opponent to estimate what they're capable of. My instincts are usually pretty spot on when it comes to enemy analysis, you know."

"And when they're not?"

"Well that's why I have teammates!"

Robin frowned as he helped his daughter up.

"...Dad?"

"I need you to take this seriously, Morgan."

"I am taking this seriously!"

"Are you?"

"Yeah!"

"Then why did you try to pull that stunt back there?"

"Because—"

"Because you're in a safe environment fighting with me and that it won't ever go badly for you?"

"It goes kinda badly…" Morgan mumbled, rubbing her back.

"Morgan, you said so yourself that you wouldn't try that stunt in a real combat scenario and examine your opponent first. Well I'm your opponent and you already know that I'm better than you, so instead of trying to overpower me when you know you can't, maybe you can pay attention and focus on the lessons I'm trying to teach you when you do come up against an opponent like this on the field. Because if you do and you behave the way you do with me, you'll end up dead."

"Right. Sorry, Dad. I'll take this seriously from now on."

"Good." Robin's expression softened. "Have to say, you've been improving a lot."

Morgan looked up. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. I'm glad that all my lessons haven't been going in one ear and out the other. I can see that you've tightened your defensive stance and posture and…"

"Can you believe that?!"

Lucina raised a brow.

"She basically ignores their lessons and does her own thing and all he does is give her a slap on the wrist!" Severa exclaimed, furiously dragging the whetstone across her sword. "Back in my day, messing up had consequences! Fathers would keep their kids up for hours perfecting their skills until they got over whatever was holding them back. And that was because there were constant reminders of what was at stake! Apparently in this time it's not all that big of a deal goofing off during lessons or whatever. Gawds, when Daddy caught me doing that when we were training…!"

The sword snapped.

"Everything is so messed up now. How come—"

"Severa," Lucina quickly interjected before Severa could reach for another sword, " I think that if this really bothers you so much and you want to get closer to Robin—"

"I never said I wanted to do that!"

"—you could always ask to spar with him."

"...How the hell does that help with anything?"

"It's how I got closer to Father."

"What."

"It's true. Back when I first joined the group proper, it was understandably a bit awkward around my parents. Fortunately, Mother got over the awkwardness quite quickly and was very eager to spend time with me. It was Father that I was a bit more hesitant to approach."

"And you, what, decided on asking him to spar with you as your first move?" Severa asked dubiously.

"It seemed like the most logical move at the time. Father was different in this time than he was in the future and I wasn't sure what I remembered of him would still be true in the past. However, the one constant was that Father was an excellent fighter. This was actually more true here in the past as he didn't have his injuries from the night Aunt Emmeryn was assassinated."

"So you, what, asked him to spar with you and bonded over beating the crap out of each other?"

"I would say that it was more that we ended up bonding over something we had in common. It was a bit of a dream come true to spar against Father when he's at his prime and hone my skills. Although naturally I had to tone it down a bit initially to ensure that Father got the better of me so that I could have an excuse to come back to him for more sessions."

"Those must've been some very painful bonding exercises," Severa commented dryly.

"Father doesn't hold back, that's for sure," Lucina chuckled. "But it was nice. I managed to hone my skills and bond with Father after our sessions. He gave me pointers and advice on how to improve my technique, and after we were done, we would talk about this and that. It may sound strange, but it did help overcome the awkwardness of our situation and get closer to each other."

Severa remained silent, taking in Lucina's words.

"I'm not saying it's something you have to do, but it's merely a suggestion if you want to try to get closer to Robin with...less talking," Lucina said delicately, recalling how most of Severa's conversations with Robin ended in an argument or Robin ending up in a bad mood. "After all, I believe that it was Robin himself that said that the strongest bonds are forged in combat. And sparring is combat, just less deadly."

Severa opened her mouth to reply.

"Okay, I think that should be it for today," Robin announced.

"Thanks for the tips, Dad. And I promise that I'll take our training seriously from now on," said Morgan.

"Good. As long as you put your mind to it. Treat me like you would an opponent that you know you can't overpower. That way you can use the defensive techniques I'm teaching you. Once you can hold your own, we'll move on to how you can turn the battle to your advantage. Why don't you go ask the others for some pointers in the meantime? We've got plenty of people here in our little group who are good with the sword and have a balanced fighting style. Like Gregor! That guy has years of experience behind him. I'm sure you don't get to his age in his profession without learning how to defend yourself. Or Frederi...actually, not Frederick. You ask him for something and end up signing up to his crazy fitness regimes and almost dying in the process…"

"Thanks, Dad. Will do. I also have Lucina, who's been nice enough to show me the ropes."

"Morgan, I hope you don't mean you—"

"Relax, Dad. I've seen what she does to the training dummies. I'm not crazy enough to ask her to spar with me."

"Good." Robin sighed, relieved. "You definitely don't want to face her head on. The last thing I want is for you to end up in the medical tent because of sparring with the wrong partner."

"Yeah, same. Besides, I have Owain and Inigo for that."

Robin looked at his daughter curiously.

"...Dad?"

"Really? Those guys? The one who shouts his moves out loud and the one who spends more time philandering than actually training?"

"I know! You'd think that Owain was full of hot air, but he's pretty good with the sword and stuff. Although I guess he'd had to pick up some stuff, with his dad being Lon'qu and all…"

"I suppose. Would be good to spar with him just to see for myself," Robin muttered. "But have you really managed to get pointers from Inigo?"

"Actually, no. I asked Owain to last time and didn't get a chance to see what Inigo can do." Morgan paused. "Wait, have you sparred with Inigo?"

"I keep meaning to, but it keeps slipping from my mind or something always comes up. Always mean to see how he managed to survive a hellish future when all he seems to care about is hitting on girls…"

"I'm sure he knows sword stuff. Like, his dad is Chrom and his sister is Lucina. How can he not know at least something about swordsmanship and keeping himself alive?"

"I suppose it couldn't have been sheer dumb luck. Really have to see what he knows myself…"

"Oh man, I'm totally gonna find him right now and ask him to fight me. Since you don't know his fighting style, that means I can get tips to get the jump on you next time we duel!"

"I really don't think—"

Robin didn't get to finish his sentence when Morgan zipped off to find Inigo.

"Heh, she only runs that fast when there's Sumia's pies to be had or when Cherche is on cooking duty. But now that training's done, I can—"

"Robin!"

"Urgh, what now…?"

Robin visibly frowned when he saw Severa approaching him alarmingly quickly.

Although Robin liked to think he generally got along well with people, Severa was the exception to the rule. Then again, her acerbic personality made it really hard to get along with her and really easy to dislike her. It didn't help that she seemed to go out of her way to piss people off, Robin included. Robin especially, actually, since she seemed determined to seek him out and spend as much time as she could with him, despite his increasingly clear dislike of her. What's more, the time she spent with him usually ended up with Severa being Severa and pissing him off. To be fair, it didn't usually start that way. Sometimes Severa would come and talk and not be her usual self and actually say things that made sense. But no matter how long that lasted, Severa would eventually say something or blow up and storm off and leave Robin feeling generally in a worse mood than he was before she approached.

And now his mood instantly dropped when she showed up.

"What do you want, Severa," Robin said, trying to keep himself as neutral as possible as Lucina was right there and he felt he should at least be nice to her friend in front of her.

"You're done training, right?"

"Well I—"

"Well you're done now, since I want a go."

"...A go at what?"

"What Severa is trying to say is that she would like to spar with you, if you're not against it," Lucina said.

"As much as I'd like to, I unfortunately have matters I need to attend to. Also used my dedicated sparring time for today, so…"

"Don't give me that," Severa snapped. "Knowing you, you've made plans and gaps in your schedule in case anything urgent or important comes up so you can move things around as necessary."

"Wha—? How do you—"

"And you don't have any strategy meetings or whatever until later this afternoon."

"...Did you steal my planner or something?"

"Just spar with me already," Severa said, rolling her eyes. She then smirked. "I know you're dying to hit me."

And she wasn't wrong. Sometimes Severa got on Robin's nerves so much he had to really hold himself back from doing something regrettable. And now that he thought about it, training would give him the perfect opportunity to teach her a lesson while seeming natural and out of place (punching Severa in the face in the middle of camp would raise some eyebrows. But punching Severa in the face during a sparring match would just be a "in the heat of the moment" thing).

"Severa, Robin does not want to hit you," Lucina said.

"Luce, look how wide he's grinning now that I've brought up," Severa pointed out and turned to Robin. "I'm guessing you're going to take time off your busy schedule for our little sparring session?"

"Severa, I'm sure this isn't—"

"Lucina's right, Severa. I have not ever thought about hitting you," Robin said.

"...You're a terrible liar."

"BUT!" Robin continued, "Because I am kind and generous and always available to help impart my wisdom and knowledge on those less wisdomous and knowledgeable than myself, I will of course move some of my plans around and take this opportunity to assess your skills on the field of battle. Thoroughly."

"Good. I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Let's see what you can do, then." Robin tossed Severa one of his practice swords.

"I'm sure that you'll be impressed once you see all I'm capable of."

"I'm sure you'll be regretting asking for this when you're in the medical tent."

"Robin…" Lucina was not amused.

"I'm kidding! ...Mostly. Kind of."

Severa scoffed. "Please. I've survived a hellish future crawling with undead abominations and multiple sparring matches with Lucina. There's no way you'll be worse than that."

"Enough talk. Let's do this."

"Just remember that this is a simple sparring match, you two," Lucina reminded, seeing the intense looks in both Robin and Severa's eyes. "There's no need to fight and have someone in need of medical attention."

The response she got was some noncommittal grunts.

Robin and Severa eyed and circled each other. They also made some light strikes trying to test the other's defenses.

"Well, come on. Enough of these petty attacks. Come at me for real!" Severa demanded.

"I am nothing but a gentleman," Robin replied, making a mock bow. "Ladies first."

"Oh, you're going to get it now."

Severa wasted no time in attacking Robin.

Robin had a few inklings of what Severa's fighting style was from his previous limited experiences. He did make a mental note of following up on that and seeing what she was capable of, but then Robin got to know her better and her personality made him want to spend as little time with her as possible. But now that he was sparring with her for real, Robin had to begrudgingly admit that she wasn't all talk.

Robin blocked Severa's attack and went for a counter.

Severa dodged Robin's counter and instead of using her weapon as Robin anticipated, she punched him in the chest.

Robin staggered at the unexpected move and Severa pressed her advantage. It was only thanks to Robin's recent swordmaster training that he managed to quickly put some space between himself and Severa to recover enough and (just barely) block Severa's latest attack.

"Urgh. Not bad. Who taught you how to fight?" Robin then grunted as he pushed Severa away.

"If you must know, it was my father!"

Severa went for a few quick strikes before going for a stab.

"Your father clearly knew his stuff." Robin blocked her strikes and dodged the stab. "Looks like I can take the kiddie gloves off and not feel bad."

"Don't insult me by holding back. Dadd—I mean, my father was one of the best swordsmen around. Spar with me for real and let me see how you measure up!"

"Well I can't disappoint when you put it like that, now can I? Prepare yourself!"

Lucina smiled as she watched Robin and Severa clash on the training grounds. She wanted them to have a good relationship with each other and that just wasn't happening at the moment with Severa being, well, Severa. Luckily, it seemed that actions were speaking louder than words.

Severa's personality may be...difficult at times (or all the time, if you asked some people), but she was unquestionably a skilled fighter. Perhaps not as strong as Gerome or Kjelle, but she compensated for her relative lack in strength with skill, speed, and finesse (and even in the strength department, Severa was stronger than most). There was no doubt she'd be able to hold her ground against Robin. And Lucina hoped that Robin would see Severa's skill and perhaps not have such a negative opinion of her. And hopefully that would lead to a better relationship between the two and hopefully be a way for them to connect.

Yes. It worked for her and her father and Lucina hoped that it would help Severa and—

"Ha!"

"Rah!"

Although Lucina didn't think she and her father ever fought hard and intensely...

---

All right! One training session done and Morgan had her marching orders. Or rather, she knew what she had to do, and that was to find Inigo and see if he could offer her anything to get an edge over her father. Even though the session didn't go the way Morgan planned (she was sure her secret plan would work!), she still managed to pull a few surprises and catch Robin off-guard a few times. And she picked those up while sparring with Owain. So expanding her circle of sparring partners should do wonders for her skills and give her much more to work with and try to get the better of Robin! And the first step to do that was to find Inigo and pick a fight with him.

"Hoy there! Do my eyes deceive me?!"

"Wha—?"

While Morgan was looking around to see where the voice was coming from, Owain jumped in front of her path.

"I finally found you, villain!"

"Villain?"

"Yes, for who could emit such a menacing aura than the true villain behind the latest evil and mysterious events?! It is thanks to my unmatched detective skills that I, Owain Dark, have managed to see a pattern through the seemingly unrelated events and trace this down to you!" Owain pointed an accusatory finger at Morgan. He then gasped dramatically. "But surprise of surprises, the true villain behind everything is none other than Morgan, my long-lost destined partner? What tricky villainy is this?!"

"Ah. Right."

Morgan finally understood. Owain was doing his "Justice Cabal" bit which she was part of. And Morgan usually had fun with that, but she had a mission now and was also kind of in a hurry, which meant that she unfortunately had to skip over the fun parts of their encounters.

"Yes, it is I, Morgan, evil villain extraordinaire, etc etc, the one behind everything, etc etc. Hey, Owain?"

"Morgaaaan! You just etc etc'd the best part!" Owain whined. "You know you only get to do your evil intro once before the audience gets to know you."

"Audience?" Morgan looked around at their empty surroundings. "Er, right. Anyway, maybe I can get my cool intro during our next encounter, yeah?"

"But I worked all day on mine just for this…"

"Also, hey, Owain? Have you seen Inigo anywhere?"

"Can't say I have. He's probably off hitting on some girls or something. Why the sudden interest?"

"I want to spar with him."

"Oof. What'd he do to deserve that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know if you'd noticed, but you kinda take your training very seriously. Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong! It's just that…"

"That…?"

"Well, you really did a number on me last time we sparred," Owain said, rubbing his shoulder. "I mean, I get that sometimes you get really into it in the middle of a match, but you seem to get into it so much you hit as if your life is on the line!"

"Come on, Owain. Are you saying you can't take a few hits during training?"

"Owain Dark's pain threshold is second to none!" Owain declared dramatically. "But still. I had some real nasty bruises after we were done. And a lot of them, since you really like to go on the offensive!"

"Heh, yeah, I get that a lot," Morgan said rather proudly. "Just my style. Also, you're no slouch yourself, you know. I had to really work hard to hit you, with your speed and dodging and jumping around to avoid my sword."

"A master of the sword such as myself knows that sometimes speed is the better part of valor. Your enemy can't beat you if they can't hit you," Owain explained sagely.

"And that point was totally noted! I think Dad said pretty much the same thing today. 'Playing defensively involves more than just blocking your opponent's attacks and stuff to that effect. So basically dodging is a viable alternative to blocking."

"Exactly. Father's style was more speed and aggression. Get in, get the bad guys, and be faster than them so they can't hit you. That's what he taught me."

"That's what he taught Dad too, apparently. Which explains why he's so much faster now…" Morgan mumbled. "Anyway, our little sparring session provided me with some valuable tips and tricks to add to my general knowledge and help me eventually be better than Dad. And I figure the wider I expand my pool of training partners, the more tips I'll get!"

"So that's why you need Inigo, huh?"

"Yep!"

"Well, like I said, I haven't seen him around lately, but fear not! I don't know if you knew, but Owain Dark is an endless reservoir of knowledge when it comes to sword techniques. I'll be more than happy to share my secrets with you via more training sessions."

"Really? Didn't you just say that I hit too hard for your tastes?"

"No. I said you hit hard, but a little pain and bruising is nothing for the likes of a legendary hero of legend such as myself!" Owain boasted. "Besides, it was pretty fun last time, despite everything. Not only was it a valuable learning experience, but I also got the chance to practice some of my awesome new special moves!"

"They were pretty impressive," Morgan agreed. "Flashy, too."

"THANK YOU! I knew you'd appreciate it. Do you know that the others don't let me shout my moves and do my specials during training? Like, they just want to spar. How boring is that?"

"Using our dedicated specials and moves that we spent time thinking up does make sparring more interesting, no doubt about that."

"And this is why you're my chosen destined partner of fated destiny!"

"That's me!" Morgan smiled brightly. "So we're good for more sessions, then?"

"You bet."

"Great! I'll try to schedule something for our duel of fates. Should be able to fit you and Inigo if I move some things around…"

"Are you really that busy?"

"You bet. I have full lists and schedules of my days and how I spend them," Morgan said seriously. "It's all helping Dad, training, doing reports, studying, intense napping, mindless free time, tactical revision, that sort of thing."

Owain looked at her dubiously.

"I'm a very busy girl, you know," Morgan insisted.

"Heh, okay. So I guess we'll just—"

"FLAMING FLAMINGO KICK!"

"Ack!"

Morgan didn't know what was happening, but it was in moments like these when her instincts took over and made her duck out of the way of what she assumed as imminent danger to her person.

"Wh—BWARGH!"

A crash.

Unfortunately, Morgan ducking out of the way had meant that whatever danger was coming her way instead came to the person in her immediate vicinity.

And as Morgan stood up and brushed herself off, she saw Owain and Cynthia lying on top of each other, groaning.

"Wow, that was some entrance! Are you guys okay?"

"Urgh…" Cynthia slowly stood up. "Morgan, what gives? You weren't supposed to dodge my super sneaky attack!"

"I mean, it wasn't very sneaky when you shouted it out loud…" Morgan pointed out. "Also, why are you just up and fly kicking me out of nowhere? That's both unprovoked and unwarranted!"

"Because we, the Justice Cabal, finally figured out your identity as the true evil villain behind the weird events lately and this was my chance to strike you down with heroic flair!" Cynthia declared.

"Sneaking up behind your opponent while they're talking to one of your teammates doesn't sound very heroic," Morgan remarked. "It actually sounds kinda underhanded. Basically something that villains would do!"

"Nuh-uh! It's a totally heroic action to get the bad guys once all the introductions are done and stuff. Owain, back me up here."

The man in question groaned from his position on the ground.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Morgan asked. "How hard did you kick him?"

"In my defense, he totally wasn't my target. Also, I'm not sure. I did try to get a pretty good running start for maximum awesome for my kick, though."

"That sounds...painful."

"...Maybe I should've done the math better before actually committing to it…" Cynthia said sheepishly. "Anyway, what were you guys talking about?"

"I was first talking to Owain to get Inigo's whereabouts so I could challenge him to a sparring match to get tricks and moves to beat Dad in training. Then Owain kindly offered to be my sparring buddy while I find Inigo and try to slot in sessions for him in my busy schedule."

"Getting combat tricks, huh? Wait a minute, you asked Owain and were gonna ask Inigo before me?!"

"I mean, I mostly want tips and tricks for sword matches, since that's what I'll be fighting Dad with. And you seem to fight mostly on top of your pegasus with spears and lances…"

"Oh, Morgan, Morgan, Morgan…" Cynthia shook her head. "Do you think just because I'm a heroic and dashing pegasus knight that I'm unable to fight with anything other than spears and lances?"

"...Are you?"

"I'll have you know that a hero must excel in more than one weapon to truly call herself a hero!" Cynthia declared. "And as the most heroic of heroes, I take that to heart!"

"So you're also good with the sword?"

"Although I admittedly prefer fighting on top of my pegasus, there are times when that's not possible and a hero must adapt to the situation on the ground and fight outside their comfort zone." At Morgan's questioning look, Cynthia continued, "...I'm okay with the sword. Better with magic, truth be told. And spears, even on foot."

"Then why—"

"Because you can get valuable experience even when you fight opponents with a different weapon! What, you think just because you fight opponents with axes or spears that you won't be able to get some good ideas on how to counter swords?"

"I...actually, yeah. On the battlefield I usually stick to magic and during training Dad and I clash with swords. I guess I was so focused on that I didn't consider expanding my horizons to non-sword enemies."

"And therein lies the problem," Cynthia said sagely. "You can't just limit yourself to fighting enemies with swords to beat enemies with swords. You need to get all the experience and tips you can get, wherever you can get it!"

"...Yeah. Yeah! You're right!"

"You bet I'm right! Now let's go find ourselves some weapons and spar a bit. We can even do it while shouting our intros and special moves!"

"Yeah!" Morgan said excitedly. She then looked past Cynthia. "You wanna join, Owain?"

"I'll...be right there…!" Owain replied, still lying facedown on the ground.

"...Seriously, how hard was your kick?"

"I, uh…"

---

Lucina was starting to get worried.

She had good intentions when she suggested Severa spar with Robin to try and bond with him, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. It helped close the gap for Lucina and her father and she sincerely hoped the same would be true for Severa. However, what Lucina failed to consider was how competitive Severa could get.

"Ha!"

"Grr…"

But that shouldn't have been a problem as Severa's opponent would usually be sensible enough to call out when Severa would get too intense before their match got out of hand.

"Ya!"

"Hngh!"

Unfortunately, Robin wasn't one of those people. And as Lucina watched the match continue, she came to realize that Robin was maybe as competitive as Severa, if not more so. Maybe that's where she got it from…

"Oof!"

And these two being stubborn and competitive meant that neither of them would back down. In a sense, Lucina supposed that was a good thing since it would be as close to a real combat scenario as it would get, which meant that Robin would get a good overview of Severa's skills while Severa would be able to fully match her skills with Robin with as little holding back as possible. The problem was that the longer the two sparred, the more intense they got.

And as Lucina watched Robin recover from being tripped by Severa and retaliate by punching her in the stomach, she decided to intervene before they really hurt each other. Or rather, hurt each other more.

"All right! I think that should be enough for now!" Lucina announced, approaching the combatants. "I hope you two are satisfied with your match?"

"It's...not...over...yet…" Severa panted, using her sword for balance as she recovered.

"Yeah...she's still...standing…" Robin said, breathing heavily.

"There will be plenty of time for sparring in the future," Lucina said calmly. "Robin, I think you may have an upcoming strategy meeting. You wouldn't want to be late by prolonging this match further, would you?"

"I…urgh. You're right," Robin admitted reluctantly. "Fine. I guess it would be better if I didn't smell like I came off a battlefield when I meet Say'ri and all those other people."

"Ha! Running away from our fight, huh? That means I win!" Severa declared.

"You didn't win squat!" Robin shot back defiantly. "Neither of us surrendered or got beat up enough to surrender. If anything, this was a draw."

"Well you're not coming to finish the fight, so I win," Severa retorted.

"Peace, both of you," Lucina interjected. "I'm sure there will be plenty of other opportunities for you to settle this."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't want to make a habit of this," Robin said.

"What, running away from your opponent?" taunted Severa.

Robin frowned. "I mean—"

"But I trust you're satisfied with Severa's skills?" Lucina quickly asked before Robin could say something hurtful.

"Yes…" Robin admitted begrudgingly. "Terrible personality aside, Severa here definitely knows her stuff when it comes to fighting and swordsmanship. Her form is solid and she has a good grasp of the basics. Although I naturally managed to get hits in, she was good enough to hold her ground against my continued attacks. I have to respect that."

Severa tried not to let her pride show.

"Also a lot of familiar styles in there," Robin noted. "I think I see traces of mine, Lon'qu's, Gregor's, and others, but adapted to fit your own style of fighting. Interesting, but not terribly surprising given the fact that we taught all of you in the future at some point."

"Indeed. Do you see any room for improvement?"

Severa opened her mouth to protest, but a quick look from Lucina silenced her.

"Everyone has room for improvement," Robin said. "There is always room to learn and grow. In Severa's case, at a quick glance, it mostly seems to be little improvements here and there since she's not working from scratch. You know, improving stance, reflexes, reaction times, that sort of thing. I wouldn't be able to comment further unless we have more sessions so I can get a better understanding of how she fights."

"So you will be free to spar with her more in the future?"

"What? No! I have much more important things to do than entertain everyone who wants to spar with me."

"Yet you cave every time Morgan asks you for something…" Severa said distastefully.

"Almost every time," Robin corrected. "Even I have to turn down my dear daughter to get things done around here, although it's so hard when she gives me the begging, puppy dog eyes…"

Severa opened her mouth to make a sarcastic comment.

"Besides, there are other people around here who are not me and who are pretty good with the sword themselves. Whether or not they actually want to spend time around you will be up to them, but it's not like I'm the only person around here who can train you or whatever."

"But you are the only one who can give a proper assessment and most efficiently assign us tasks based on your observations," Lucina pointed out.

"I...suppose that's true… But—!"

"Will you not assist Severa, Robin? She was one of the most capable fighters in the future and I'm sure you would be able to use her more efficiently if you fully knew what she was capable of and helped her hone her skills."

Robin bit his lip. He then looked between Lucina's eager expression and Severa, who crossed her arms and was looking like she really didn't care.

"Think of it as an assessment of how to improve unit performance and cohesion," Lucina said.

"Gods. You said the magic words." Robin closed his eyes and sighed. "I...guess you have a point. I'll see if I can't make time for more sessions with...her."

"Thank you, Robin," Lucina said gratefully. "You won't regret it."

"I already do…" mumbled the grandmaster. "Just...you know. Make sure she brings her skills and keeps quiet during the sparring. I like her much better when she doesn't open her mouth."

"Who the hell—!"

"Thank you, Robin," Lucina interrupted, cutting Severa off. "We really appreciate it."

"We do n—Hey! Let go of me!"

Lucina proceeded to drag Severa off before the latter could say something to ruin the moment.

---

"I didn't need your help back there, you know," Severa grumbled once they were clear of the training grounds.

"I know, but I figured that it would be best if I intervened," Lucina said. "I'd say it was an overall success, wouldn't you?"

"I guess. This Robin is definitely no slouch when it comes to combat."

"Fighting style familiar?"

"Very, although there are subtle differences. I guess it's because he's more focusing on speed and offenses with the swordmaster style."

"But there's enough there from what you recall?"

"That and more."

"And you've made progress during your session, have you not?"

"Don't know if I'd call it 'progress.' We were really good during the fight but I think he still hates my guts."

"Don't say that, Severa. It's true that Robin might be a bit...prickly with you, but you heard him yourself. He acknowledged that you are a capable fighter and he respects you for that. I think you even managed to impress him with your skills."

Severa grunted.

"And you can build on that with your subsequent sessions until you have a...more amicable relationship."

"I guess it's a start…" Severa admitted. She then shuffled awkwardly. "Look, Luce, I know I'm not very good at this and I probably don't say it enough, but...thanks for trying to help. I...really appreciate it."

Lucina smiled. "Any time, Severa."

---

"Gods, what have I gotten myself into…?" Robin mumbled, running his hand through his hair.

He liked and respected Lucina. A lot. So he guessed he could see this as a favor to someone he liked and respected. However, Robin's liking and respecting of Lucina was balanced out by his increasing dislike of Severa. The girl's tendency to come in and piss him off always left Robin in a bad mood after any interaction with her. And now he committed to spending prolonged periods of time with her! Why?! That was a guaranteed way for ruining his days for the foreseeable future.

Robin sighed.

No, he had to think positive. Severa was at least a good fighter on the field and proved to be a capable opponent. More importantly, she kept her mouth shut when they sparred. So then she was tolerable when she fought and didn't speak. Maybe Robin could use that somehow…

This whole Severa situation was giving Robin a headache. And a throbbing pain in his right hand, weirdly enough.

"Looks like somebody's ready to dabble in dark magic!" someone said in a singsong voice.

Robin sighed. "Henry, what do you want?"

"Nothing much," said the dark mage, approaching. "I was just in the neighbourhood and suddenly caught this really intense aura! And like a moth to a really bright flame, I had to see what that was all about!"

"We should have known it was you," Tharja said, materializing out of nowhere behind Robin. "No one else could radiate such power."

"Guys, what are you doing here?" Robin asked tiredly. "I really don't have time for your cryptic dark mage stuff."

"When have we ever been cryptic? We've been as direct as arrows aimed right at your head," Henry responded flippantly. "So you've finally decided to take up dark magic, huh? It's about time!"

Tharja nodded. "Indeed. It was always such a waste that you never pursued something you are so well attuned to. I'm glad that you decided to change your mind."

"...I have no idea what you guys are talking about," Robin stated flatly.

"You. With the dark magic!" Henry laughed. "Tharja and I could sense the power from your negative energy like a mile away!"

"I do vaguely recall you guys mentioning something about dark magic being tied to negative thoughts or emotions or something, although I fail to see what that has to do with me."

"Do you? Not even the slightest idea?"

"No, unless all that dealing with Severa has suddenly translated itself into dark magic."

"So is she the cause of all this? Interesting. Usually I'd curse anyone who would dare upset you, but if she helps you tap into your potential…" Tharja muttered thoughtfully.

"We should really thank her for her service," Henry said. "She got Robin to focus on dark magic without us even having to help."

"Guys, are you serious? Because what I said was meant to be a joke."

"Joke or not, it seems like we have a way for you to access your dark magic potential without you having to think about unpleasant things happening to your daughter," Tharja said. "Dark magic manifests in different ways, but primarily draws its power from one's rawest, most powerful thoughts and emotions. And negative ones tend to elicit the strongest reactions and thus provide the strongest material for dark magic to feed off of. The stronger and more negative, the more powerful the magic."

"And your negativity now is off the charts!" Henry chimed in. "You must really dislike Severa!"

"Be that as it may, I really don't have time for this, you guys," Robin said, exasperated. "I've got places to be and people to meet. So if you don't mind—"

"Surely you don't expect to leave without giving us at least a little demonstration of your power?" Tharja asked. "Besides, it would help you to loosen up."

"And keeping all that energy cooped up inside may result in some very nasty constipation!" Henry added.

Robin looked at the dark mage dubiously, trying to figure out whether he was serious. Unfortunately Henry's constant smile plastered on his face made figuring him out a bit tricky.

"I can see that I'm not going to get rid of you until you get what you want." Robin sighed. "So what do you want me to do?"

"For now? Just focus your negative thoughts and emotions and try to hit that training dummy," Tharja said, pointing to a dummy across the field.

"What, just like that?"

"For now. A simple Flux spell requires only your base emotions to power it. A mage of your caliber should have no trouble casting it."

"But how am I supposed to—"

"You can always imagine that dummy's Severa when she does things that you really dislike," Henry suggested. "And then let the magic do the rest!"

That made sense. It also made it a lot easier for Robin.

Focusing on the dummy and conjuring up an image of Severa nagging him as she tended to do, Robin felt a rush of something in his right hand.

"And now do to the dummy what you can't do in real life," came Tharja's voice.

Ideally that would've meant punching Severa in her annoying face, but given that wasn't really an option right now, Robin went with the next best thing.

Robin smiled sadistically and snapped his fingers.

The dummy was instantly consumed with dark magic and exploded.

"Whoa, that's some Flux!" Henry exclaimed. "She must really make you mad if that's what you did to the dummy."

"She does tend to get on my nerves and drive my thoughts in darker directions, yes," Robin admitted.

"Such wonderful power… I think we found a way to unleash your true dark magic potential. Aren't you excited to learn what you can do with your newfound power?" Tharja purred.

"Somewhat. And I guess it did make me feel better."

"And the more you do it, the better you'll feel! The best part about dark magic is that it's self-reinforcing!" Henry explained. "Get mad, blow some people up, feel good about blowing some people up, power your magic with thoughts of blowing people up and how good it felt, rinse and repeat!"

"Yes, well, as helpful as this has been, our sessions will have to wait. I was serious when I said I had places to be and people to meet. Have to talk strategy and stuff in the royal palace. See you two later."

And Robin proceeded to walk away from the dark mages.

It seemed like today wasn't totally a wash. He learned a bit about Severa and a bit about himself. Robin supposed that dark magic would come in handy as yet another weapon in his arsenal, but he wasn't too sure about the whole "negative thoughts and emotions" part of it. Robin wasn't one to wallow in negativity and it was exhausting when he did. Then again, he supposed that Severa wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and he could use that, as unpleasant as it was being constantly in a bad mood. And he supposed that blasting the dummy did put the pressure off him somewhat and gave him a pleasant, tingly feeling inside. That, and a rush of power. That felt good.

Robin shook his head.

All that stuff could wait. He had more important things to think about now.

---

Cordelia had a problem. Well, not a problem per se since it wasn't serious enough to be called a problem. More of an issue, really. A minor, awkward issue. And if this were any other issue, Cordelia would either sort it out herself or talk to her friends about it. Unfortunately for her, this minor, awkward issue had to involve one of her friends and would be too awkward to talk to anyone else.

It was really all Sumia's fault.

Sumia introduced Cordelia to the Ribald Tales series and Cordelia quickly fell down the rabbit hole of wonderfully explicit erotic novels. And it was all well and good as Cordelia got maybe a bit too into the series as her secret guilty pleasure. It was less good when those graphic scenes in the book translated themselves into real life...or rather, her blasted mind decided to take scenes from those books and replace the characters with people she knew.

To be fair, it only happened once! And Cordelia promptly stopped reading those novels before bed so that it wouldn't happen again! Alas, it was too late. And no matter how hard Cordelia tried to bury/forget that one particular dream, a (treacherous!) part of her mind just wouldn't let it go and always kept on bringing it up. Worse, that same (still treacherous!) part of her mind couldn't help but be curious about other scenes in the novels (including some scenes that Cordelia definitely didn't bookmark) that would work with her and certain people she knew. Well, one person in particular after that random and unwanted dream.

So just like that, Cordelia's entire relationship with Robin turned weird. Well, weird from her part. Robin was luckily none the wiser about Cordelia's inner turmoil and continued with blissful ignorance as if nothing was wrong...which it wasn't as far as he was aware. It was Cordelia's issue and she had to deal with it before it made her entire relationship with Robin awkward...or, more awkward than it already was.

And Cordelia thought she was doing a good job of trying to make everything normal. While it was extremely awkward around Robin at first, it helped when she had something to do or people there to distract her from the awkwardness. People were usually good distractions...unless those people were Gaius and Vaike. They just made things worse. So Cordelia busied herself with tasks or made sure that she was with people if she did find herself with Robin. It was as if everything was normal when she had to focus at strategy meetings and give her reports, or had tasks to do. Even the magic training with Robin wasn't awkward since Cordelia was focused on her casting instead of the closeness of their bodies and how Robin could move his arms just a bit to grab her—

...So the whole 'getting past this awkward phase/trying to get back to normal with Robin before he noticed anything was off' was progressing, albeit in fits and starts. It was just a matter of trying to get past that annoying, perverted part of her mind that just wouldn't leave this matter alone! It just needed time. Yes.

Gods, this whole mess reminded Cordelia of the old days when she crushed on Chrom and spent her time conjuring up various imaginary romantic scenarios and what they would do together as a couple. This was like that, only a lot less innocent and a lot more lewd. That, and Cordelia didn't have a raging crush on Robin as she did Chrom—she just had (unwanted and unprompted!) lewd thoughts about him. That was...better? Yes, better. At least the situation with Robin was fixable! And besides, it's not like her annoying lewd thoughts actually meant anything. Her entire situation would've been a lot worse and a lot more complicated if they did.

So Cordelia focused on dealing with her internal issue and found things to do while she dealt with the aforementioned issue.

"All right, ladies! Good work today!" Cordelia shouted at the assembled trainees in front of her. "You all did very well. Remember what you've learned, since you'll be needing all your skills soon enough. Dismissed!"

The assembled pegasus knight trainees saluted and began dispersing.

Cordelia was packing up her training equipment when she heard footsteps. Looking up, she saw a familiar figure looking lost.

"You look like you need some help!"

"Cordelia, thank gods! You won't believe how big and samey this damn place is. Every time I try to head off somewhere, I get lost and end up somewhere not where I was headed!" Robin said irritably, approaching. "And if that isn't annoying enough, me getting lost means that I end up late for all my meetings, making both me and Ylisse look bad."

"Yes, this place does get some getting used to," Cordelia said. "Where are you headed?"

"The main palace building. I thought I was headed in the right direction from the training grounds, but apparently wound up in another training grounds instead! I swear I need a map of this place…"

"Isn't the main palace building the biggest building around here?" Cordelia asked. "The one in the center of the complex?"

"You'd think so, but I walked past at least three such buildings, all of which looked the same and were not the main palace," Robin replied irritably.

"I think the main palace building isn't too far away from here. All you have to do is go through the—"

"Oh no, I'm not falling for that one again. Ended up making a full circle last time I asked for directions. The language issue didn't help any… Anyway, I'm going to be late at this rate. And since none of us want to make me or Ylisse look bad in front of the dignitaries coming here, why don't I hitch a ride with one of you guys on your pegasi? Instead of fumbling around on foot, we can find the palace from the air and I'll look important descending from the air and not being late for my meeting."

"Coming to the Sky-Commander and asking her to be your personal escort to your meeting? Aren't you abusing your position just a little bit?" Cordelia teased.

"Hey, I didn't ask for you personally. If you have better things to do, you can ask one of your trainees to do it. There seems to be enough of them around here and they look like they have free time on their hands. Besides, this isn't just about me. This is about Ylisse! And Chrom! Do you really want to make Chrom and Ylisse look bad in front of our new foreign friends?"

"Oh, well if it's for Ylisse's sake, I guess I can set aside my pride and get you to your destination. After all, we wouldn't want the Grandmaster of Ylisse to show up escorted by a mere trainee, now would we?"

"I mean, I guess it doesn't really matter who—"

"Robin? Do you want to be late or do you want to be on time?"

"You're the one keeping me here!"

Robin proceeded to run to the stables.

Cordelia shook her head, smiling as she watched Robin leave. She was slowly getting back to normal. Talking to Robin was starting to become not awkward again!

"Sky-Commander?"

Cordelia turned to see two trainees stop before her and salute.

"Cadets." Cordelia returned the salute. "How can I help you?"

"We saw that strange man accost you and just march off," said the shorter one.

"Would you like us to 'talk' to him?" asked the taller one. "And 'remind' him that he should speak respectfully to Ylisse's Sky-Commander?"

Cordelia blinked. "'Strange man'? 'Accost'? Do you two not know who that was?"

The trainees hesitated.

"S-should we?"

"Have you two never seen the Grandmaster of Ylisse?"

"Unfortunately we have not," admitted the taller one. "We were in training for the most part and have been in the reserves, so we have only seen glances of the higher ups."

"Aside from you and the Sky-Captain, that is," added the shorter girl.

"Ah, I see."

"...Please don't tell me..."

Cordelia nodded. "That 'strange man' was indeed Robin, the Grandmaster of Ylisse and second-in-command of our forces."

Both cadets blanched.

"O-oh goodness. I can't believe..." the taller girl mumbled before looking at Cordelia, eyes wide with panic. "Sky-Commander! Please forgive me and my sister for our impertinence! We didn't know and didn't mean any disrespect! Please don't let—"

"Peace, both of you," Cordelia said, raising her hand. "You're not in any trouble."

"We...aren't?"

"No. It wasn't your fault that you didn't know and from the outside it did look a bit funny, didn't it? I won't hold it against you and won't tell the Grandmaster."

"Thank you, Sky-Commander! We promise that we won't make the same mistake again!"

Both girls saluted.

"He's certainly not how we imagined him to be…" the shorter girl commented.

"Oh? And how did you imagine the Grandmaster of Ylisse would look like?"

"From the tales of his genius on the battlefield that could only come from years and years of fighting, I thought he would be an old man."

"With wrinkles and a beard and stuff," added the taller girl. "Not someone who looks our age."

"He's kind of cute…"

Cordelia's head snapped to the younger of the sisters.

The shorter girl's eyes went wide when she realized she said that part out loud. "W-what? I mean, I don't think the Grandmaster of Ylisse is 'cute'! He's definitely handsome and stuff, so not really 'cute' in the—Oof!"

"I apologize on behalf of my sister," the taller girl said, after not-so-subtly elbowing her sister in the ribs. "We will be off now before we can say anything to embarrass ourselves further."

Cordelia watched as both girls saluted and quickly made their way away from her.

Ah, to be young and carefree. Not that Cordelia was that much older than her trainees and fellow knight-sisters, but she did feel that her trainee days were so far away…

Cordelia thought back about her time as a trainee wistfully. Before she worried about her spear technique, what the older knights thought of her, and boys. It all seemed so trivial now that she was a veteran and fought with her friends and had her own trainees to take care of. And now that she was older and Chrom was married, the whole 'boys' thing went away on its own.

That thought brought Cordelia back to her conversation with the trainees and, more specifically, how the younger sister described Robin as "cute."

Cordelia shook her head, smiling.

"Cute" was what you used to describe pets or little kids. Being a grown man, "cute" wasn't what Cordelia would use to describe Robin. He had his own quirks and that made him endearing, but not cute. If she had to describe him, Cordelia leaned more toward "handsome." After all, Robin was a man, had an above average physique, and wasn't too bad to look at if he wore something other than his signature coat, baggy clothes, or flowing swordmaster's garb.

So, yes. Robin was quite a handsome individual, if Cordelia was honest. It was just a good thing he was focused on war instead of being a shameless philanderer like Inigo or the more successful Virion. Gods, if Robin had half the skill that Virion claimed to have, Cordelia was sure he would have quite the number of tales of his nightly escapades to share!

Although that did bring up a thought. Robin said he was determined to start looking for Morgan's mother once the war with Valm was over and done with. And Cordelia just witnessed one of her trainees express interest in him in front of her eyes. Would it be possible that Robin's future wife was…? Would he even notice? Would the Grandmaster of Ylisse disregard rank and engage with a simple trainee?

Cordelia shook her head.

She didn't know why she was even thinking about these things. Robin's love life was a matter for him and not her concern at all. If he was destined to be with one of her trainees, then that was that. Besides, rank meant little after Chrom up and married Olivia, who then was just some dancer they met on their journey.

...But still. Thinking about it gave Cordelia an unpleasant feeling in her chest. There should still be some order to these things! Why would the Grandmaster of Ylisse, arguably the second most important person in Ylisse, just skip the entire ladder and go for a trainee? Robin was much too logical to pull something like what Chrom did! If he was destined to marry someone within the army, then he would've followed a logical process or something to find his future wife! Like starting at the top and making his way down! After all, there are plenty of eligible candidates who could be his future wife before the trainees. In the upper ranks closer to his own. Like Sumia! Or even higher than Sumia, hers—

Cordelia halted.

Huh. Strictly speaking, she was actually the one closest to Robin in rank for consideration if he was going by that route. Even though he and Sumia had basically equal seniority and she was the one who had spent the most time with him, technically speaking Sumia left Cordelia to take up the rank of Sky-Commander, so Cordelia would be first in line to be considered to be Robin's future wife. If that was how that matter was to be decided by. Rank, that is.

Cordelia shook her head again.

Okay, this was getting weird and stupid. She didn't even know why she was giving so much thought to this. It wasn't even something that concerned her! Cordelia supposed this was better than spending her time not thinking about the other Robin-related thing, which she thought she was getting good at.

...And now that she thought about it, she was close to thinking about it again.

Damn it! Cordelia needed a distraction before things became awk—

"Cordelia! Where are you?! We're definitely going to be late at this rate!"

Oh thank gods.

"Sorry, Robin! I'm coming!"

Well, it was a distraction. It involved Robin, but it also involved directing her attention to something and thus keeping her mind from wandering back to it. Cordelia was happy to take that.

---

"I can't believe how long that took," Robin exclaimed as he stepped outside and stretched. "We come in there to discuss strategy and suddenly get caught up with all this unrelated political crap. I wish I could just do my job without any of these unnecessary interruptions…"

Thanks to Cordelia's deft handling of her pegasus, Robin made it just in time for his meeting. Once he hopped on, she managed to get them in the air and to where Robin needed to be in record time (and making Robin a bit sick due to all the sudden air movements).

So Robin touched down from the sky to meet Chrom, Say'ri, and Virion in front of the palace entrance before going in to discuss strategy and planning with their new partners. And with everything going on, planning for things got slightly more complicated. There was also the unwelcome addition of political considerations in addition to the military ones, with the only bright side being that Robin had help from Virion and Say'ri on that front. It still took a while, though. So long that the sun was already setting by the time they were done.

"My dear Robin, you have to expect some pushback when you essentially ask other nations to contribute their forces to your cause," Virion advised, amused.

"It's not my cause, it's our cause!" Robin objected. "You know, liberating their countries from the tyrannical rule of Walhart and his lackeys? All that for the greater good? You'd think that they would put aside their conflicting interests and just help us!"

"Alas, I have first-hand experience in how petty rivalries and opportunism dash any chance we might have had to overthrow the Valmese yoke," Say'ri sighed. "So what you have accomplished so far is nothing short of a miracle."

"Hmph. Wish this little 'miracle' had more soldiers in it," Robin muttered. "But thank you for helping me back there, Say'ri. I got the feeling that your people didn't like me back there."

"I apologize on their behalf." Say'ri bowed. "They are somewhat distrustful of foreigners after having to serve outsiders appointed by my brother and Walhart. But after everything that you have accomplished, you have my full support. Please inform me if you are having trouble with anyone from Chon'sin. I will personally advise them that you have my absolute trust and authority. My people may be wary of you, but they would not dare question my authority."

"Appreciate you covering my back there on the diplomatic front. Both of you," Robin said, turning to Virion. "Although I'm not sure how well your presence will go down with Rosanne's delegation given, you know…"

"Fear not, Robin! Although most of the country thinks me a selfish craven at best, this view is fortunately not shared by those in positions of power. Well, not all of them, at least."

"Oh?"

"Indeed. I have had the chance to quietly exchange correspondences with some of my old contacts. They proved much more understanding once they understood the situation and had time to let their anger cool."

"Well I hope you can use that charm of yours there to help sway the delegation to our side," Robin said. "Rosanne is to start moving its soldiers to Chon'sin so that we can determine how best to use them."

"And based on current intelligence that would be sending them to Renacia?" Chrom asked.

"At the moment, yes," Robin confirmed. "We don't know what Walhart's next step will be, but I'm guessing that he'll want to take all his remaining soldiers and make his way down here to put down our little uprising once he gets word that his southern vassals are suddenly breaking off. And that means he'll have to make his way through Renacia first. And since we still can't take his army on directly, we'll have to bleed him out. Fortunately for us, Renacia's fortifications were left mostly intact due to the dirty tricks used to turn Renacia against us. Now we'll use those fortifications to deplete Walhart's army as he tries to make his way through the country."

"But what's stopping him from ignoring all the castles and making a dash straight to the capital? Or to Chon'sin?"

"Nothing, except that he'll be stuck deep in enemy territory besieging the extremely fortified capital with no supply lines and his army being constantly harassed by the enemy coming from the surrounding castles he ignored. We'd be lucky if Walhart does something stupid like that, to be honest. Then we could actually bleed his army in Renacia before he even makes it to Chon'sin!"

"But won't that also affect our armies?"

"Chrom, we discussed this at our meeting," Robin said patiently. "It's a numbers game. Walhart's army still outnumbers ours and we need a way to even the playing field. Yes, him sieging Renacia will cost us soldiers, since this plan is mostly to slow him down, not defeat him utterly. However, the plan also calls for us to inflict a lot more casualties on him than he inflicts on us, which should be a lot easier for us since we will be the prepared and supplied defenders. And although yes, there will be casualties on our side, I'll have escape plans prepared for when defending each castle becomes untenable."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. The Renacian delegation brought a bunch of plans and layouts of their castles and fortresses," Morgan explained. "Looooots of old tunnels and catacombs and stuff that stretch underground and lead out of the castles. And if that fails, there's always the sewers! So once it looks like Walhart's forces are gonna break through, all we have to do is evacuate the defenders and get as many of them out and to the next castle as possible. Walhart will suffer heavy casualties taking the castle, we'll hopefully get a bunch of our forces out and to the next heavily fortified castle, and Walhart will have to spend his time and troops taking that one. Rinse, repeat, and hopefully we can wittle his army down enough so that we can fight them on the field ourselves and win!"

"'Tis a bold plan. And envisages a lot of fighting and devastation on Renacia's soil…" Say'ri said solemnly.

"Which is why the delegation wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the plan," Virion noted.

"Well it was better than what they had, which was nothing but questions trying to shoot my plan down!" Robin retorted. "And it's not like they're the only ones doing the fighting. This is going to be a group effort! Even Andrast is sending people, and they're basically two steps away from a civil war!"

"Oh boy, looks like Robin's getting a little heated after our little meeting," came a familiar voice. "It's a good thing we were there to keep things diplomatic!"

"Flavia!" Chrom greeted. "It feels like it's been forever since we last saw you!"

"You bet it was! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were avoiding me and my men!" Flavia laughed as she approached. "We split up for a little bit and by the time I make it here, you're already off to another country!"

"We had some urgent matters to attend to and—"

"You don't have to explain yourself to me," Flavia said, waving dismissively. "I know how urgent things can get and how sometimes you just can't wait. Besides, it was a bit my fault too. Got a little distracted with blowing off steam with Valmese patrols."

"Are you okay?" Morgan asked.

"Oh sure! Me and the boys were just feeling a little restless after all the sneaking around. So we decided to take some Valmese patrols to keep our senses sharp."

"Well as long as you weren't followed or anything," Robin muttered. "Good to have you with us again, Flavia."

"Good to finally be back here with the group to bust some heads!"

"Well you'll soon be getting to that, don't you worry. We'll be sending our troops to reinforce Renacia as soon as the Rosannian forces arrive and we get information on Walhart's movements."

"Looking forward to it. It'll be good to take out as many of those Valmese dastards as possible after what they did to Basilio…"

"Indeed."

"And our plan in the meantime?" asked Say'ri.

"Prepare. Train. We have a few days until the Rosannian delegation arrives and it'll take a little while to sort out troop movements and where they should all go," Robin explained. "Not to mention that we may get some unwelcome intel on Walhart that completely throws my plans out the window…"

"So we have a little downtime now?" Morgan ventured.

"Don't get too comfortable. We have to be in a position where we can move out at a moment's notice if we get word Walhart is moving to engage us," Robin warned. "We'll also need to get busy coordinating supplies and logistics and drafting plans and everything…"

"Not to mention the work on the diplomatic front," Virion added.

"Right. That too. So busy times ahead. But it's been a long day now, so I suggest we call it here. Any objections?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Okay. Great work today, everyone. Let's get some rest and meet up tomorrow."

Everyone nodded and started going their separate ways.

"Ah, Say'ri! A moment, if I may?"

"Virion? To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"The pleasure is all mine, milady. I was wondering if I may be so bold as to invite you for…"

Robin yawned as he headed to his room.

"Busy day today, huh?" Morgan remarked, walking beside him.

"Yep. Going to be a lot more of those, unfortunately. Get ready for a few late nights."

"I'm more than ready!"

"...But not too late. I don't want you staying past your bedtime."

"Awww, why not?"

"Because I need you to be fresh and bright when I bounce ideas and strategies off you. That doesn't work if you're half asleep."

"Come on, Dad, have a little faith in me. Besides, you stay up late all the time and you seem to be fine."

"Okay, first of all, don't let Chrom hear you say that. Or Cordelia. Or Sumia. They really get on my case when they find out I stay late drafting strategies. And second of all, I don't stay up late all the time! And when I do, it's not really that late."

"Dad, who are you trying to fool?"

"Besides, I'm a grown adult. I hear that a lack of proper sleep stunts growth in your teenage years."

"Really?!"

"Yep." Robin tried to keep his face straight. "So unless you want to be cute and short forever, you better go to bed on time!"

"...You're making that up to mess with me, aren't you?"

"You're right; you'll always be cute," Robin said, pulling Morgan close to him.

"Dad, seriously. It's not even that late. Let me help you with something."

"Morgan…"

"Look, the sun is just setting! I have time before I go to bed! Please? Pretty please?"

"Someone's excited to look through mountains of papers…" Robin chuckled.

"Are you kidding? That's the tactician's bread and butter! Well, when not directing forces on the battlefield, that is. Besides, battles are won or lost depending on good, accurate paperwork. You said so yourself!"

"Well I can't really argue against myself, now can I? You really want something to do this late?"

"You bet!"

"Okay, okay. Why don't you go get your deck?"

"Dad?"

"I have a few new cards that I want to test against you."

"It's not work, but I guess this is okay too, although…" Morgan patted her front pocket. "Brave of you to assume I don't carry my deck on me everywhere I go."

"...Really? Even to battle?"

"I've spent way too much of my allowance on this deck to risk it being stolen by some petty thief in camp while I'm out there winning wars."

"Morgan, how often do we get thieves in—"

"As often as that time we got like half of our equipment stolen?"

"That was totally a fluke! And I've made sure to implement measures so that never happens again!"

"Yeah, like I'm going to risk my deck! Look, I trust you, Dad, but what would I have done if that thief stole my deck instead of our weapons? Do you know how much time and allowance I've spent building this deck specifically to crush yours?"

"Morgan, that's not the—do you really build your deck with the sole purpose of countering mine?"

"For the most part. If it's good enough to beat you, it's good enough to beat the others, although Owain and Cynthia have been giving me an increasingly hard time lately…"

"I guess I should be honored. Okay then, why don't you run to my room to fetch my deck so that we can do battle, then?"

"You don't carry your deck on you, Dad?"

Instead of answering, Robin looked down at his pockeless swordmaster's outfit.

"...Right. Man, must be rough without any pockets."

"Very," Robin sighed. "But that's why I have you and your pockets! Anyway, want to get my deck so that I can knock some humility into you?"

"Heh, we'll see who knocks who with the...uh...you're going down, Dad. Again!"

"And don't you think of peeking at my cards!" Robin shouted as his daughter ran to his room. "I've enchanted my deck so that something very unpleasant happens if someone that isn't me opens it!"

"Dad, please. It's a lot less fun to beat you when I know exactly what all your cards are!" Morgan shouted back as she ran.

"I guess I should admire her confidence…"

"Robin!"

"Hm? Oh, Sumia! What's up?" Robin said, frowning as he saw the urgent expression on the pegasus knight's face.

"Robin! I have an urgent matter that I need help with. Do you think you could…?"

"Of course. Lead the way."

"Thank you, Robin." Sumia smiled gratefully then hurriedly walked away.

Robin followed Sumia past various buildings and through several complexes until he had no idea where they came from or where they were going. He just hoped Sumia's sense of direction in the palace complex was better than his, otherwise they would be spending a lot of time wandering around generally being lost.

"We're almost there," Sumia said, opening the doors to some shed.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were an assassin luring me to my untimely demise," Robin quipped, entering the shed. He then paused at what he saw inside.

"What's going—"

"Surprise!" Sumia explained, smiling. "Now that we're not trekking through the wilderness and had time to settle in, I've taken the liberty of finding some ingredients and whipping up something nice for our hardworking resident tactician."

"I do work very hard…" Robin agreed, rushing to sit down at the table that had a teapot and very pretty pie on it. "What's the occasion?"

"Does there have to be an occasion for me to make pies?"

"You know it's always a special occasion for me when you make pies," Robin said, his face dead serious. "And even more special when you make one just for me personally."

"I just thought that you deserved something nice after all the hard work you've done." Sumia hesitated before continuing, "And, well…"

"Well…?"

"M-maybe I wanted to spend some time with you. I feel like it's been so long since we've done anything together."

"What? That's definitely not true. We do things together all the time! Like discuss books at our society meetings? And train? And fight?"

"Robin, we do all those things together with other people," Sumia pointed out, closing the doors to the shed and sitting across the small table. "I meant it's been a while since we've done something...just the two of us."

"That's not…! I mean, we've done…" Robin paused, thinking. "...Have we really not done something together, just the two of us for that long?"

"Not that I'm blaming you or anything!" Sumia said quickly, cutting a piece of the pie and putting it on a plate. "But, you know. Remember the early days when you just joined the Shepherds? You were just getting to know everyone and most of the others were stationed elsewhere or hadn't joined yet."

"Yeah, it was a simpler time then. Remember when we met?"

Sumia poured them both a cup of tea. "It was when Lissa was showing you around and introducing you to the rest of us."

"Well, sure, I guess. I was more thinking of when we 'officially' met."

Sumia looked at Robin curiously. He didn't say anything, a playful smile on his face.

Sumia then recalled what Robin was talking about.

"There we go," Robin said mischievously, seeing the blush on Sumia's face.

"You have no idea how scary and embarrassing that was," Sumia mumbled. "Here I was, still a trainee with no experience off to meet our newest member and my superior, when I trip and fall on said superior. I was sure that you were going to fire me then and there!"

"You gave yourself too little credit back there. Besides, it all turned out well in the end! You stuck around, got yourself a pegasus, turned into a fantastic warrior, made a good friend, and I got access to an incredibly talented pie cook! Speaking of, do you mind?" Robin asked, pointing at the pie on his plate.

"Please. I made this just for you."

"You're so good to me, Sumia…" Robin then started eating and closed his eyes to let the deliciousness sink in. "Mmmmm…"

"Anyway, I feel that we had more time to ourselves back then to do things together," Sumia continued, seeing Robin being his usual contented self when he ate her pies. "Remember how we spent time reading books and discussing our thoughts afterward?"

"Ah yes, back when our book club was just a club," Robin recalled nostalgically. "I guess it's true that we did have more time back then to do things together. Naga knows I certainly had fewer responsibilities. And it was really nice spending time doing things together instead of running around attending to the myriad of tasks we have now."

"I thought I'd try and recreate those days, if only for a little while," Sumia said, before suddenly looking alarmed. "Unless you have more important things to do now and I'm just distracting you, in which case—!"

"Peace, Sumia," Robin chuckled. "The only way I'm going anywhere is if someone bursts through the door right now advising me that we're either under attack or that Chrom's dying. Other than that, I'll always have time for you. That goes double when you come bearing pie!"

Sumia giggled at Robin's continued enthusiasm for her pies.

"But you'll have to excuse me for what you'll see next," Robin continued, grabbing his piece with both hands.

"Robin?"

"I'm going to have to skip my table manners and try to eat your pie here as fast as I can. It...may get a bit messy."

Sumia raised a brow.

"Do you know what happens every time, without fail, when you make a special pie just for me? I have the usual suspects barge in here and steal my hard-earned pie, that's what! Every. Single. Time. And although my pie stealer senses have gotten pretty good, the only surefire way to avoid having my pies stolen by those much less deserving is to eat them as fast as I can before those pie thieves get a chance to find me and help themselves to my pie, so—what's so funny?"

"Oh Robin," Sumia giggled. "I think you and your pies will be safe for today."

"How can you be sure?"

— Meanwhile, at the other end of the complex —

"Can you believe Sumia just up and gave us this pie?" Stahl asked, eating his piece.

"I know, right? She usually only does that for Bubbles, the lucky dastard…" Gaius said. "What I wouldn't give for a cute girl to give me a steady supply of pies…"

"Should we be worried?"

"About what?"

"We usually don't get Sumia's pies unless we manage to, uh, procure some from Robin. And even when we do, it's kind of a struggle with the others."

"Eh. Bubbles and Blue have that big meeting with the nobles or whatever. They'll be busy for the next while, which means there's more pie for us!" Gaius said, reaching for another piece.

"I suppose that's true. But what about—"

Stahl was interrupted by the sound of footsteps before someone burst into the room they were in.

"I KNEW IT! You tried to hide it, but there's no way you can hide Sumia's pies from ol' Teach and his nose!" Vaike shouted. "I ain't lettin' you get away without getting a piece myself!"

"He looks...worked up," Stahl noted. "Do you think he'll—"

"He looks like he's going to ju—get the pie out of the way, GET THE PIE OUT OF THE WAY!"

— Back at the shed —

"You really did that?"

"Yep!" Sumia nodded proudly. "I wanted to have some time for ourselves, Robin. The others barging in and starting fights about pies would get in the way of that, so I took steps to ensure that wouldn't happen."

"Thinking ahead and planning for likely outcomes. That's a tactician's way of thinking! Am I rubbing off on you?" Robin said with a grin.

"I might have picked up a few things from you here and there. I'm not going to be winning wars anytime soon, but I can at least plan to have some time for us so we're not interrupted."

"And that's half the battle! So let's enjoy our time together until something else happens to interrupt it."

"Robin, why does something else have to—"

"Remember who you're talking to, Sumia. Stupid things tend to happen to, and around, me which usually interrupt me when I'm doing something I like."

"But that's not—"

Robin gave Sumia a pointed look.

"...It's not all the time, but I take your point."

"Thank you."

Robin and Sumia both laughed softly and proceeded to engage in small talk while Robin enjoyed his pie and Sumia sipped her tea.

"—says Chrom ate an unpeeled orange. Unpeeled!" Robin exclaimed. "Can you believe that?"

"Did he stop after he realized?"

"I don't think he ever did."

"Oh dear."

"Indeed."

The two fell into a comfortable silence as Robin took another bite out of his pie.

"...Sumia?"

"Hm?"

"Have you ever been in love?"

Sumia almost spat out the tea that she was drinking.

"Oops, sorry about that," Robin apologized, patting Sumia on her back as she coughed. "Shouldn't have hit you with that one out of the blue like that."

"R-Robin! Where…is this coming from?" Sumia managed to say between coughs.

"You could say it's research. Well, research and planning." When Sumia looked up at him questioningly, Robin continued, "I know that right now we're all focused on defeating Walhart, but I can't help but think about the future and what we're going to do after we're done with the war. Or, more specifically, what I'll need to do after the war."

"And what will you need to do?"

"Turn to the complicated task that is finding Morgan's mother."

"Oh. I see…"

"Yeah…" Robin sighed heavily. "It's something I've been trying to ignore, but it keeps on coming back the closer we get to finishing this war. So I've been trying a few things here and there, you know? Made a promise to myself that I'll work on finding Morgan's mother in earnest after the war, so I thought I'd try and get some hints or something so that I'm not starting completely blind."

"And?"

"And what I've gotten so far was a bunch of vague crap!" Robin exclaimed. "I tried asking some people about it, you know, to see if there were some common threads and signs that I could recognize? Well it turns out that 'everyone's experience is different and unique' and 'you can't plan love, Robin' and 'no, Robin, you can't get the ball rolling with a love potion.' Can you believe that?"

"...Did you really ask about using a love potion?"

"Not like it matters. Using one feels like cheating and runs the risk of me forcing love on someone who may not be Morgan's mother, which will make things a bit awkward afterward. And I didn't plan on using one anyway. Even if I did, there's no one I have in mind. Urgh!" Robin growled in frustration. "I have to find Morgan's mother and I don't even have any hints or leads on how to do it!"

"I see how that can be upsetting," Sumia said sympathetically.

"Upsetting, frustrating, and frightening. I don't know if you noticed, but I like to go into a new situation prepared with plans and knowing what I'm doing. This whole Morgan situation has me grasping around in the dark with not even a slightest hint of light. And I haven't even properly started looking yet!"

"Robin, I think you're giving this too much thought."

"I can't help it, Sumia. I like to know where I'm headed with my plans. And right now I know nothing. I hate knowing nothing!"

"Robin…"

"And not all of us can be like Chrom and immediately know when we meet 'the one.' He's so lucky sometimes. Gods, now I want to trade places with Chrom? You see what this whole uncertainty is doing to me?"

"I do. And I really think that the best way to move forward is to put a pin in this matter for the moment. I mean, you need to focus right now on winning the war. And since you can't really do anything about finding Morgan's mother, there's no use in thinking about it and getting worked up when you do."

"I know, but sometimes I just can't help it, you know? I love Morgan so much and I want her to be happy. And while she doesn't really need my help in that department, I know the fact that she doesn't 'have' a mother is a big cloud that hangs over her."

"It'll be okay, Robin," Sumia said gently, putting her arm around his shoulder. "I'm sure you'll find her mother quickly once you put your mind to it after this whole war business is over! Do you know what you want in her mother?"

"No."

"Do you know what you want in your wife?"

"No."

"Well maybe those would be good places to start?" Sumia suggested.

"Huh?"

"It looks like you're focusing too much on the 'finding Morgan's mother' part of the scenario while overlooking the part where she's Morgan's mother and your wife." At Robin's puzzled expression, Sumia continued, "Try thinking about what characteristics you want in a woman that's going to be your wife and Morgan's mother. Get down to the details instead of thinking of the big picture."

"I...gods. Never even thought of looking at it that way. What qualities do I want in Morgan's mother…?"

"And you wife."

"Urgh. I have spent my entire life happily not thinking about my love life and now it's suddenly one of my more pressing matters…" Robin sighed. "I really don't know the answer to those questions, Sumia. I just want Morgan's mother to love her as much as I do."

"Well that shouldn't be too hard. It's very hard not to love her."

"She is pretty loveable."

"Anything else?"

"Just...to be a good mother, I guess?" Robin looked up at Sumia uncertainty.

"It's okay, Robin. You don't have to answer right now. These are just some suggestions so that you're not starting totally blind when the war with Valm is done. Maybe something to think about when you can't help thinking about this, you know?"

"Yeah. Okay. Something to think about so that I'm not starting off completely blind. Yeah…"

And it was something. Robin still felt like he was flailing around in the darkness, but at least he had a sliver of light to guide him to his destination. Maybe. Hopefully that sliver would brighten up the more he thought about it so he'd have a rough idea of what he was looking for in a woman for when he started looking for Morgan's mother.

"Thanks for the advice, Sumia," Robin said gratefully. "This was very helpful. I feel a lot less lost now than I did before we talked."

Sumia smiled. "No problem. You know you can come to me whenever you have something bothering you."

"A very reassuring thought." Robin then cleared his throat. "Right. Sorry about bringing down our happy little breather with my family issues. So enough about me! Let's talk about you, my dear Sumia. What's going on in your life? What are your plans for the future? What will you be doing after this whole war business is done and dusted?"

"You mean besides helping you with your family issues?" Sumia quipped.

"Ah, don't try to steer the subject back to me. This is now all about you and your plans," Robin countered. "What do you plan to do after the war?"

"My plans…" Sumia sipped her tea thoughtfully. "I haven't really thought about it that much. I've always been good with animals, so I'll probably want to do something with pegasi. And something off the battlefield. Maybe retire, even."

It was Robin's turn to almost spit out his tea.

"Are...are you serious?"

"Robin?"

"I mean, you're still in the prime of your life!" Robin exclaimed. "Brimming with youth and ability! Why retire so soon?"

"Because wars are such an ugly and terrible business…" Sumia shook her head. "I don't think I'm made for it."

"But you did so well all this time!"

"Well initially that was because I felt I needed to do something, you know? Ylisse was being attacked and it was my duty as a Shepherd to do everything in my power to defend the country. I was one of the few who could, after all, since Ylisse didn't have an army at the time. The experience was harrowing and awful and extremely stressful at times, but I pulled through and we managed to win. I have to admit that I liked the little peace we enjoyed a lot better than all the war."

"Peace does have its perks," Robin commented idly. "But what about now? You could have retired, yet you're here, with us, waging war in another country. And the circumstances now are a lot better, since we have an army and all."

"Well, I can't say that I haven't thought about it, but I couldn't do it. During peacetime you needed people to train the new generation of pegasus knights, and I couldn't let Cordelia do all of that alone. And I'm here now because Valm is a serious threat to us all and I can't sit back while my friends risk their lives defending Ylisse."

"So you do this out of a sense of duty, then?"

"Don't we all? And although war is a terrible business, the only reason I can do this is because I know you're here with me, keeping us all safe."

"I try my best," Robin said. "So, what will you do once we're done here in Valm and we return back to Ylisse? You won't even stick around to train the troops?"

"I may, although my dream is to work with animals. But I guess it was nice teaching the new trainees. Made me feel like I was really contributing, you know? That was nice. Maybe I'll do that, or go to the countryside and look after pegasi." Sumia sipped her tea. "I don't know for sure yet."

"Okay. Mind isn't made up yet. That's good…" Robin mumbled.

Sumia looked up.

"Robin?"

"So if you haven't landed on a concrete plan, I can totally help out by giving some suggestions. And speaking of suggestions, how about this: you can retire from active duty if you really want to, but instead of retreating back to some farm in the middle of nowhere or whatever, you can do that closer to home! By which I mean the castle. And you can impart your timeless wisdom and experience to the new generation of pegasus knights, since you like doing that and have so much to teach them."

"Robin—"

"No, seriously. We have lots of grounds and green spaces around the castle that I can repurpose for pegasus care and I heard many good things from the trainees about you. Oh, I know! You can teach the trainees about pegasus care! How about it? You'll be taking care of pegasi and teaching the next generation about doing it! Doesn't that sound like something you'd love to do at the castle instead of in some farm in the middle of nowhere?"

"Robin, are you really that desperate to keep me in the castle?" Sumia asked jokingly.

"Yes."

The speed as well as the admission itself caught Sumia off-guard.

"What? I'm serious. Look, we've known each other for a while now, right? Hell, you were one of the first people I've met and known for basically my entire life! The only people I know longer were Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick, and of those three, I only hang out with Chrom more often than I hang out with you. And that's only because my job demands it! I know I may not be the best with expressing myself and stuff, but I guess what I'm trying to say is..." Robin shifted awkwardly and cleared his throat. "You've become kind of a constant, reassuring presence in my life, which means a lot to me. You've seen me at my best, my worst, and been with me during all the highs and the lows. I, uh, really like having you with me and the thought of you moving away is...well, it freaks me out, to be honest."

"Robin…"

"And I know it's all purely hypothetical and nothing's set in stone and I guess I'll have Chrom and Cordelia and all the others, but come on! It'll be like an important part of me will be missing! We're Robin and Sumia! Together since almost the beginning and two parts of the Robin and Sumia Literary Society! You going away will be taking half of that with you. And I can't hold the fort on my own! Please don't go?" Robin then paused. "Er, I mean, this is your future and your choice and I won't prevent you from going if that's what you decide you want to do. But it'll be sad. And I'll be sad. Very sad. Please don't go? Or at least tell me your concerns so that I can try to make arrangements so that you won't go? Please?"

Sumia was silent, taking everything Robin said in. She then took his hand in hers and smiled warmly.

"Robin, do you really think I'd leave you after your heartfelt plea just now?"

"I really wish you wouldn't," Robin replied, wrapping his hands around hers. "I know I don't say it that often, but I hope you know you mean a lot to me, Sumia. You're one of my closest friends, my confidant, and my partner. I would be so very sad if I lost you."

Sumia's heart was racing.

What Robin said was a few lines away from being a full blown confession. She herself was dying to confess her feelings to him, but was holding it in until after the war to avoid distracting Robin (and possibly upsetting him, given his distaste for romantic dalliances during wartime). But would it be so bad if she spilled the beans now instead of waiting? Sumia felt that the mood was right and she could get it off her chest and in the open and finally find out if Robin felt the same way about her that she felt about him. Would she? Could she?

Sumia looked at Robin, who was smiling and had an earnest expression on his face.

That's it. No waiting. She would do it right here, right now, consequences be damned. If she didn't do it now, Sumia just knew she wouldn't ever have the courage again until the war ended.

Sumia took a deep breath, committing herself.

"Y-you know, Robin, I-I think there is a way that would guarantee me staying in Ylisstol…"

"I'm all ears."

"I-I mean, there's no way that I could leave if you...uh...I mean, if...we...were…"

Robin looked questioningly as Sumia tried to push through what she wanted to say. But before she could continue, the doors to the shed burst open.

"Found you!"

"EEK!"

Sumia was so startled she recoiled as if burnt and ended up falling backwards in her chair.

"Ooh, sorry about that," Morgan apologized sheepishly.

"Are you okay?" Robin asked, helping Sumia up.

"Y-yes, thank you. Just a bit startled."

"Good to hear." Robin nodded then turned to his daughter. "Morgan, what are you doing just loudly barging in here? Weren't you supposed to be getting my deck from my room?"

"Well I was, but you left by the time I got back! And worse than that, you left to go eat some of Sumia's pies without me!" Morgan exclaimed. "Dad, how could you? You know how much I love Sumia's pies!"

"Morgan, I—" Robin began when a thought occurred. "Wait a minute. How did you even find us in here? Sumia didn't tell you we'd be here when she invited me to have some secret pie."

"Dad Sense," Morgan said wisely, tapping her head. "I can tell where you are and more or less track you down within a ten mile radius."

"Are you seriou—"

"And on top of that, I got a wicked nose fine tuned to track down pies. Sumia's pies, to be precise," Morgan added rather proudly. "Combine those together and there's no way you're hiding from me."

"Heh, I guess you spoiled her with your pies even in the future," Robin remarked to Sumia, amused.

"Like father, like daughter," Sumia giggled.

"Anyway, you're lucky you decided to show up when you did, kiddo. We still have some pie left!" Robin gestured to the table.

"Goodie! I'm not too late." Like a bolt of lightning, Morgan darted to the table and sat herself down, eagerly reaching for a piece of pie.

"I like this side of you, Robin. It's much better when you share instead of fight for my pies with the others, although you're usually very good at pre-empting your pie thieves…" Sumia noted playfully.

"Much like Morgan, I do also have my own pie senses, although they're tuned to pie thieves rather than the pies themselves. Fortunately and logically, my daughter doesn't count as a pie thief. And why would she? I'm more than happy to share your pies with her."

"How very sweet of you."

Robin and Sumia sat themselves down at the table with Morgan.

"Say, Sumia? What were you going to say before Morgan barged in here?" Robin asked.

"Huh?"

"You know, about how to guarantee you staying in Ylisse after the war?"

Morgan looked up, alarmed. "Is Sumia going somewhere?"

"She—"

"No, of course not!" Sumia said quickly. "Your father and I were just discussing our potential plans and what we want to do after the war. Something came up, but your father made a very convincing argument that I just couldn't say no to."

"So you're not leaving?"

"No. I'm not going anywhere."

"That's good to hear! We'd all miss you, you know?"

"That's very nice of you, Morgan."

"It's true! If you leave, who else is gonna make us delicious dinners and the world's greatest pies?"

Sumia mock pouted. "You know, sometimes I think you two like me only for my cooking skills."

Morgan's response was muffled by her mouthful of pie.

"Morgan, table manners, please," Robin reminded. "And I'm sure Sumia knows that we love her for more than just her cooking skills."

Sumia looked at Robin knowingly, waiting for the inevitable pie-related follow up.

"It's true, you know."

Morgan nodded thoughtfully while she swallowed her food.

"You two certainly know how to make a girl feel wanted," Sumia said, smiling.

"Wanted and appreciated, I hope."

"Definitely."

"I—"

"I smell pie!"

"What the hell—" Robin's head snapped to the entrance of their shed. "You!"

"Heya, Cynthia!" Morgan waved. "What're you doing here?"

"I smelled pie and tracked the smell all the way here. I can't believe you guys started eating pie without me!"

"How the hell did you find us here? No one even knows where we are!" Robin exclaimed.

"The nose knows," Cynthia said sagely, tapping her nose. "I can track down pie like a shark sensing blood, only not as gross.

"Great. Another pie thief, yet I couldn't feel this one coming. Must be an off day…" Robin mumbled.

"So there's still some pie left for me, yeah?" Cynthia asked, inviting herself to the table.

"Hey, you're not—"

"There sure is!" Morgan said, cutting Cynthia a piece.

"Thanks, Morgan. You're the best!"

"Morgan!" Robin cried in horror. "What're you doing?! There's only like a quarter of the pie left and you're just giving it away!"

"Why wouldn't I?" Morgan asked curiously. "After all, sharing is caring. And I think Cynthia's cool enough to get a piece."

Cynthia beamed.

"I can't believe my own daughter just casually parts with her pie…"

"Hey, idiot! Wait up! You can't just run off in the middle of our conversation!"

"Now what…?" Robin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and turned to the entrance again.

"Hey, Severa," Morgan greeted.

"The hell…?"

"Sev, look! Pie!" Cynthia said excitedly. "Just like we remember it!"

"You ran off in the middle of our conversation to get some pie?!" Severa exclaimed.

"You know yourself how good I am at sensing pie. Also, remember how good it was?" Cynthia took a bite out of her piece and closed her eyes, enjoying the taste.

"Want some? I think there's still enough for everyone," Morgan offered.

Severa scoffed. "I didn't come all the way here just to eat pie."

"You'd look a lot more convincing if you weren't drooling," Cynthia snickered.

Severa blushed. "S-shut up!"

"Come on, Sev, you know you want one. Otherwise I'll help myself to your piece right now."

"Oh no, I'm not letting you get away with stealing what's mine!"

Severa snatched the piece of pie in front of Cynthia and sat down at the table, trying not to make it too obvious how much she enjoyed the pie.

Meanwhile, Robin was taking in the scene with dismay.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sumia asked sympathetically.

"What's the point? Should've known something like this would happen sooner or later..." Robin said morosely. "I'm sorry, Sumia. You took all this time and effort to do something nice so that we could spend some time together, and now it looks like that went out the window."

"It is a shame that we couldn't have had more time to ourselves," Sumia conceded, "But we made the best out of the time we had. And it was nice while it lasted, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose. We did get to spend some time together and talk about some very important issues. Which reminds me," Robin said, turning to Sumia with a serious look on his face, "Sumia, you weren't just saying that you'd stay to make me feel better, were you? Because I don't want to tie you down somewhere you'll be unhappy just for my sake. Also, I was serious when I said I'd get you grounds for a pegasus pasture...thing where you can raise and look after all the pegasi you want!"

Sumia laughed softly. "Robin, I told you that my retirement plans weren't set in stone or anything, but I appreciate you taking the time and effort to accommodate my hypothetical plans. As for your question, there's no way I can be unhappy as long as you're with me."

"...Now you're just saying things to embarrass me."

"At least it's working."

"I-is not."

"The blush on your face says otherwise," Sumia remarked playfully.

"This isn't a blush! I'm just hot because...I have a fever. Yeah! You're being cheeky with a sick person, Sumia."

"I have my moments." Sumia smiled and looked back. "Anyway, do you want to join them?"

"What's the point? My pie's gone and so is our quality time. What're we even going to talk about?"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Oh yeah? Then let's settle this. Dad!" Morgan called out. "We could use your expert, unbiased opinion to settle a disagreement."

"Oh boy…"

"Cynthia and I were discussing the Tales From lore and the topic of power and legendary weapons came up. Although there's a bunch of cool weapons to choose from, we both narrowed our pick to two: the Book of Naga from Jugdral and Brynhildr from Fates. Now—"

"The Book of Naga is superior," Robin stated definitively.

"Ha!" Morgan had a triumphant look on her face.

"But you didn't even hear our arguments!" Cynthia objected.

"I don't need to. The Book of Naga is superior."

"Told you," Morgan said smugly.

"But Brynhildr can manipulate earth, gravity, and life! It's basically the strongest tome ever!"

Robin scoffed. "If that's what it actually did, yeah. Maybe. But what it actually does is summon a tree to attack its target...for whatever reason. It's not really made clear how that has to relate to gravity and life or whatever. Maybe if the target had like, a deadly fear or trees or something. Meanwhile, the Book of Naga can—"

"Not that I care about your nerdy lore or whatever," Severa paused, taking enthusiastic bites out of her pie. "But Aureola is totally the best legendary tome."

"See, now this is where the argument becomes interesting." Robin sat down, an excited expression on his face. "The contest between the Book of Naga and Aureola is much closer because…"

Sumia shook her head and smiled as she watched Robin at the table, with that look that said he would spend an inordinate amount of time explaining his reasoning and going deep into the lore. She was a bit sad that she didn't get to confess today, but maybe it was for the best. After all, Robin had to focus on the war and couldn't get distracted with interpersonal problems. And that gave her more time to think about how she'd do it after the war!

So Sumia pulled up a chair and listened to Robin go in-depth in comparing the Book of Naga and Aureola.

---

Cynthia was in a good mood. Then again, Cynthia was always in a good mood. And why shouldn't she be? A true hero is always positive and never lets life get her down, no matter how hard it gets! Because attitude is half the battle! And if you won half the battle before it even started, then the other half would naturally follow!

"Oh gods. Nerd alert."

Not even evil and sarcastic ice queens would get Cynthia down!

"Heya, Sev! What's up?"

"Not much. I was just in the area and decided to see how my favorite local raving lunatic was doing."

"...Did something good happen?"

"No, why?"

"You only seek me out specifically to pick on me when something bad happens, or when you're in a good mood because something good happened. To you, that is."

"That's not true. I'll have you know that I also pick on you when I'm bored."

Cynthia frowned.

"But if you must know, I've just come from a marathon session in strategy book reading."

"Wow, really? You? Reading any sort of tactical book for a prolonged period of time?"

"Like you're one to talk!"

"Hey, I admit I'm no genius strategist. Heck, I'm not a strategist even a little bit!"

"And I have higher aspirations. Namely, to finally end my stupid argument with Robin and prove that I totally do have a mind for tactics and can spot holes in his oh-so-perfect plans."

"So that's what this is about, huh?"

"Yep." Severa nodded smugly. "I'll show him. He thinks he's so smart, having all the answers to every tactical question ever with no mistakes on his part. Well we'll see about that! Also gonna show that Morgan isn't the only one around here that understands tactics. I can't wait to see his face when I casually solve his little tactical problem he gave me. And then I'll show him again when we spar!"

"You two've been sparring?"

"It was Lucina's idea. Said it'd help break the ice or whatever. I was skeptical at first, but it actually helps, in a way."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. He can't say anything to me when I show him what a good fighter I am. And I intend to keep showing him until—"

"Until you get his approval?"

"What? No! I don't need anyone's approval for anything!"

"Gotta say, Sev, you sure are doing a lot to get Dad to notice you."

"He's not and I'm not!" Severa snapped. "This is all part of my intelligence gathering mission."

"We're still on that?"

"Well duh! Who else is going to do it if not us?"

"...Weren't you more concerned with Morgan?"

"I'm concerned about both of them! And it's not like I can be in two places investigating two people at once. Not like anyone's helping me…" Severa said, narrowing her eyes at Cynthia.

"Hey, I was doing plenty too!" Cynthia said defensively.

"Oh yeah?" Severa crossed her arms, unconvinced.

"Yeah! While you were busy training and reading, I was over there spending time around Morgan."

"Really? And?"

"And the girl has some stupid good luck!" Cynthia complained. "I mean, we always go get card packs and open them together. And while I get some good cards here and there, she always gets at least one rare. I bet her deck is stacked with rares, judging by all the gold barriers. Can you believe that?"

"And this is the result of all your hard work?" Severa asked rhetorically.

"Hey, you said get close to 'the enemy' to get to know them and figure out what they're up to, so that's what I'm doing!" Cynthia shot back.

Severa sighed. "I am so alone…"

"Anyway," Cynthia decided to redirect the conversation. "Have you tried talking with your mom yet?"

"Yeah, right," Severa scoffed. "No way I can just walk up to her and talk like everything's fine and dandy."

"Why not? If I can do it, you should be able to also!"

"You don't have nearly as many outstanding issues with your mom as I do with mine. Or any at all…" At Cynthia's confused look, Severa continued, "No, I will not elaborate!"

"You're making it really hard to help you, you know…"

"I didn't come here for help, so just...leave me alone!"

"Okay…" Cynthia decided to change track. "How about we go talk to my mom, then?"

"Sumia?"

"Yeah! She's just as nice and approachable as we remember. Also you don't have any weird issues with her, do you?"

"No."

Strangely enough, all the weird rumors in the future were about Cordelia and what a scheming/terrible/what-else-have-you woman she was. Sumia was hardly ever the main subject of the rumors, and was much more sympathetic in the rumors than Cordelia when she was mentioned.

"Well there you go!" Cynthia said as if that settled the matter. "We can both go and talk to my Mom so ease the groundwork to get closer to your Dad and your mom."

"I told you that—!"

"And maybe we can get dibs on her next pie. Gods, they're still as good as when we were little…"

"...Fine. Let's go talk to your mom."

"Heh, it's the pies that convinced you, huh?"

"No, although I'll admit that your mom makes the best pies around. Not even my perfectionist mom can compete, despite coming pretty close."

"Yeah, your mom's pies are also pretty good, but there's something about…"

---

"Ha!"

"Ya!"

Robin managed to dodge the first fireball thrown at him and barely managed to dodge the second one.

"Okay, good progress today, ladies!" he shouted, trying to catch his breath. "Your bodies are getting used to casting spells in rapid succession. On top of all that, your aim is getting better. Some of those fireballs you threw actually almost hit me!"

"They would've hit any slower enemies," Cordelia remarked playfully.

"I guess my new swordmaster training does focus on speed and dodging the enemy. Still, full marks for almost hitting me. You two have been making stellar progress lately!" Robin noted with satisfaction.

"We're...so happy…!" Sumia panted.

"Uh-oh. Sumia, did you overdo it?"

"N-no, I'm okay! I just...need a little...breather…"

"Oh dear. Methinks that Sumia may have pushed herself a little too hard today again. Sumia, didn't I tell you to tell us when we're going too hard?" Robin asked, approaching.

"I-I'm not...I'm okay! I…"

"Would be more believable if you didn't sound like you're about to keel over after every breath," Robin said sternly. "Come on, let me help you."

As Cordelia watched Robin lead Sumia through breathing exercises to regain her strength, she frowned unconsciously. Robin sure gave a lot of attention to Sumia during their magic lessons. Sure, that may have been due to the fact that Cordelia was generally good at whatever activity she picked up, and the fact that Sumia was...not as adept as Cordelia, but still. Robin could've spent some time showing Cordelia the ropes! Otherwise he just gave her quick glances and compliments on her form or concentration, but then immediately diverted his attention to Sumia. It was slightly unfair, since Cordelia was a student too. And she needed Robin's attention so she could do magic properly! Robin's attention being focused mainly on Sumia made Cordelia feel...not good. It wasn't jealousy, because Cordelia wasn't a jealous person and she understood why Robin paid so much attention to Sumia. It was more like a sense of...unfairness. Yes, because all students require the same level of attention and time, and maybe then Cordelia could feel Robin's strong hands assisting the magical flow in her body. Then they would drift slowly down until—

Cordelia shook her head.

She spent way too much time these past few days trying to dispel exactly those kinds of thoughts to try and get her relationship with Robin back to normal. She stopped reading all Ribald Tales titles and even resorted to avoiding Robin in order to get her thoughts out of the ribald gutter. After all that hard work Cordelia was not going to let her thoughts back there!

"Okay, there we go. Feeling better, Sumia?" Robin asked.

"Y-yes, thank you," Sumia responded gratefully. "I can't believe how magic can really take it out of you! It doesn't seem like you're doing much when you're casting spells."

"It does sneak up on you when you're not careful. One minute you're casting spells all over the place and suddenly you want to collapse on the ground and sleep. Have to know your limits, Sumia."

"Right."

"Oh, Robin?" Cordelia called out. "Do you have a minute?"

"Sure thing." Robin checked with Sumia to ensure that she was okay one last time before making his way to Cordelia. "What's up?"

"I…wanted your opinion on my stance and technique. I think I'm getting the hang of consecutive casting, but I feel that there's something off and would really appreciate your comments."

"Really? You seem to have a real knack for it from what I've seen," Robin commented. "I don't think that I've seen anything that could use correcting."

Probably not. Cordelia called Robin over in the heat of the moment to have him give her some attention and had to come up with something on the spot.

"Well it's always good to keep an eye out on things, right? After all, we're both still novices and are bound to make mistakes."

"Some more than others, but I see your point. Very well. Show me what you got."

"Thank you."

Cordelia opened her practice tome and got into position...

"Ah, Robin. There you are."

...Only to be interrupted as someone approached.

"Hey, Miriel. Laurent." Robin waved. "What brings you over to the training grounds?"

"I believe that it was you who requested we meet at this location at this precise time," Miriel responded.

"Really?" Robin paused. "Oh crap, is it that time already?"

"Indeed." Miriel nodded. "And one minute past our meeting time approximately...now."

"Damn it. Okay." Robin turned to his students. "Sorry, guys. Looks like our training session has overlapped a bit and now I'm late for another meeting. We'll have to pick this up next time, yeah?"

"Of course, Robin. Thank you for taking the time to teach us," Sumia said.

"Y-yes, what Sumia said." Cordelia had to push down her disappointment. Finally some time with Robin and then this happens…

"Right. Good job today. Remember what you learned and what I told you!" Robin shouted as the two pegasus knights made their way from the training grounds. He then turned to the two mages. "Okay, what've you got for me?"

"Our research into the inner workings of the Goddess Staff is progressing well," Miriel reported.

"And allow us to thank you for giving us the chance to examine this fascinating relic," Laurent added. "We appreciate that it is not every day that—"

"Yes, I'm a very good leader with an eye out for fascinating relics and projects, etc, etc. So have you found out how it works and, more importantly, how we can make it work?"

"In a way, yes," Laurent answered slowly.

"...The hell does that mean?"

"Please note that we have only been able to properly investigate the Goddess Staff when we had access to the proper facilities with the appropriate resources," Miriel said.

"That time being our return to Chon'sin," Laurent added.

"So we have only had a very limited amount of time to perform our investigations and gain an understanding of the inner workings of the staff. However, I can report that in that time we have managed to discover that the staff has healing properties."

"So...it's just a fancy healing staff?"

"A healing staff with much more power and range," Laurent corrected. "We can safely assume that the staff has enough power to potentially fully heal every individual in an army of moderate size."

"That's...helpful, I guess, but I'm more interested in the teleporting properties," Robin said. "That could prove much more useful now than mass healing. Please tell me you managed to get some understanding of that and how we can make it work."

"We regret to inform you that we have not made progress on that aspect at this current time."

Robin sighed. "You guys, you know that I appreciate everything that you do and the fact that you managed to dig some secrets out of the staff in such a short period of time, so thanks for that. On the other hand, I really need some movement on the teleporting thing. I mean, me, Laurent, and Inigo managed to warp our way to you guys when we were lost in the desert. Remember that? I don't know how we managed to do that or why, but I feel we need to understand if we can repeat that feat again. Soon. The next steps in the war against Walhart will be crucial and being able to just warp ourselves even a short distance would be a tremendous advantage, although ideally it'd be more than just a short distance…"

"Your concerns are noted, Robin. Laurent and I will redouble our efforts to understand this aspect of the staff," Miriel said. "Although we cannot guarantee any results at this stage, we will endeavor to provide an update as soon as we are able."

"Thank you. And please do. Ask Say'ri for help if you need to. Her people should probably know the history and power of the staff better than us. Use any means at your disposal to pry the secrets out of that thing!"

The mages nodded and made their way back to the library. Or their laboratory. Wherever they needed to be.

"Okay, now for—"

"Hey, there's Robin. Hey, Robin!"

"Cynthia. Severa. Can this wait?"

"We'll make this quick, I promise," Cynthia said. "Have you seen Sumia and Cordelia?"

"You just missed them. They went off somewhere after our magic training session."

"Do you know where they—" Severa began before being interrupted by Cynthia.

"Wait, you offer magic training sessions?"

"No. Only to them. I don't have the time to just train everybody!"

"Can I get in on those?"

Severa looked at Cynthia incredulously.

"Did you not just hear what I said?" Robin asked.

"I did, but it's not an extra lesson for me! I'll just be joining them so it'll just be an extra person in your slot."

"Wait a minute, can you even do magic?"

"You bet! Watch." Cynthia snapped her fingers and conjured a small fireball in her hand. "See?"

"How am I just learning about this? This sounds like something that should've been discussed when we first met you!"

"I mean, I think we started talking about it, but then went on to discuss Fates and how Jugdral was totally not better than it."

"First of all, Jugdral is unquestionably better than Fates," Robin stated matter-of-factly. "And secondly, how was you knowing magic not ever brought up with me after that? I could've adjusted my entire strategy with you!"

Cynthia shrugged. "You never asked."

Robin and Severa both facepalmed.

"I don't have time for this…" muttered the grandmaster. "Cordelia and Sumia went that way. Now I have to go this way."

And Robin walked off without waiting for a reply.

"So that's a yes to the lessons, then?" Cynthia shouted after him.

"What the hell was that?" Severa demanded.

"What?"

"We come here to look for our mothers and you suddenly want to wiggle your way into some magic training with him? Where did that come from?"

"Hey, it's just not fair. I mean, our moms get to spend some time with Dad. You get to spend time with him sparring. It seems that I'm the only one who doesn't get to spend time with him! This is just my way of fixing that, getting some magic pointers, and spending more time with our mothers!"

"He didn't even agree to it!"

"Do you think he can say no to this face?" Cynthia flashed her most charming smile.

"And what if you end up wasting his time, huh? He has to teach an extra person now! If he agrees. And that can eat into his time with others!"

"Relax, Sev, I'm not gonna steal any of your sparring time with Dad. We'll just plan it so he has enough time for us both!"

"Dealing with you is always so exhausting…" Severa rubbed her temples. "Let's just go find our mothers."

"Lead the way!"

---

Chrom sighed as he entered his chambers.

"Tough day?" Olivia asked.

"Feels like a day even though it's only barely half of one." Chrom made his way to the bed. "There is so much to do. Robin is busy on the strategic and military front, but I have to deal with that as well as the political and diplomatic one. So many different important figures and their own interests and agendas. Now I know what Robin meant when he said he missed being in Ylisse."

"He was homesick?"

"Homesick in that he missed how he could ignore or really tell people how he felt, no matter how important they were." Chrom fell back on his bed. "I need a quick break. Maybe a nap or something. Do you think people will notice if I'm gone?"

"I think people will notice whatever you choose to do or not do," Olivia said. She then paused as she gathered her nerves. "Although…"

"Hm?"

"I-I think I may have an idea of something you can do that'd be better than napping."

"Really? Because a quick naps sounds really enticing right about now…" Chrom mumbled. When he opened one eye to glance at Olivia, he noticed something. "...Olivia, why are you wearing a nightgown in the afternoon?"

A very risqué one at that.

"Oh, this?" Olivia took a deep breath, mentally committing herself. "I-I just thought since I had some spare time, I'd pop into our room to try out some of my outfits…"

She sensually approached her husband, her face determined but still becoming redder by the second.

"I see…"

"So that I'd, uh, know how I look in these…" She slowly straddled Chrom's lap.

Chrom's only response was a sharp inhale of breath as he noticed Olivia's equally risqué underclothes.

"O-or so my husband could s-see me if he had a moment…?"

The room was silent for several seconds.

Just as Olivia was about to lose her nerve and scramble off Chrom's lap, she yelped as she was suddenly flipped onto the bed and pulled into a deep kiss.

---

"I hate this," Robin muttered.

"My dear Robin, why would that be? Lately it seems that you've been busier than the rest of us," Virion said.

"Because all my being busy will amount to nothing if I don't get the right intel. Need to see what Walhart is doing in order to plan accordingly. And him sitting in his territories doing nothing is making planning to counter him...tricky."

"I never took you to be the reactive type."

"I make do with the hand I'm dealt. And going on the offensive now would do no one any good."

"Well at least this is a cool way to pass the time," Morgan said, looking at the scene in front of her.

The two men turned to watch the latest troops from Rosanne practice.

Robin had to admit that he was impressed. Virion wasn't kidding when he boasted that Rosanne had the finest archers in the land. Even practicing, the soldiers pulled off some pretty impressive stunts (Robin didn't care if they did just to show off in front of him). The addition of horse archers was also helpful. Robin was excited to see how they performed on the battlefield.

"This lull won't last very long," Virion predicted.

"Oh it definitely won't, I just hope it'll be over sooner rather than later. As fun as it is to craft plans for hypothetical scenarios, I'd love it if I can narrow it down to what I'm crafting my plans for."

"I'm sure something will come up soon," Morgan predicted confidently. "After all, Walhart can't hide behind his allies and vassals forever!"

"Even though it sure feels like it…"

Just then, a scout rushed to the grounds carrying some papers.

"This looks important," Virion commented, seeing how quickly the scout rushed to their location.

"Thank you," Robin said, taking the papers from the scout and looking them over. "Huh. An interesting development…"

"Dad?"

"Morgan, go see Laurent and Miriel to get me a status report on their project. Emphasize how we really need them to get that thing working today."

"You bet."

"Virion, gather everyone important and have them meet me in our usual room in thirty minutes."

"You can consider it done."

"Thanks. I'll get Chrom myself, so you don't have to worry about him."

---

Robin and Chrom were best friends, two sides of the same coin, and brothers in all but blood. Their relationship was forged in the heat of countless battles and withstood the test of time, scheming nobles, broken rules, marriage, and children. It was strong, enduring, and was at the point where one could barge into the other's room without needing to knock.

Which is exactly what Robin did.

"Chrom? Chrom! Get out here! We've got news and important developments!"

Robin thought it was weird that Chrom went back to his room in the middle of the day, but whatever. Chrom was a grown man and could do whatever he wanted.

"R-Robin?! What are you—" Chrom shot up in his bed and pulled his blanket up.

"Why are you back in bed? It's barely midday! Did you take a nap or something?"

Chrom opened his mouth, his face weirdly red.

"Whatever. Not important. Get dressed and meet me in our meeting hall place in five minutes. We finally got some developments in this war!" Robin exclaimed excitedly before shutting the door and running off.

"Why does he always do that…?" Chrom sighed.

"At least he didn't see me this time," Olivia murmured, emerging from under the covers beside Chrom.

"I suppose that's true. Guess I'd better get dressed or I'll never hear the end of it. Unless…"

"Five minutes!" rang Robin's voice from down the hall.

---

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Chrom asked, as everyone made their way to the courtyard.

"Miriel?" Robin asked, turning to the mage who was walking beside them.

"While the circumstances and timing are far from ideal, we have managed to make progress in our understanding of the inner machinations of the Goddess staff," Miriel said. "And based on our knowledge as it currently stands, I estimate that our chances of successfully using the staff to warp ourselves to be roughly sixty to seventy percent."

Chrom turned to look at Robin dubiously.

"Hey, I'd take those odds! And we'll warp to our chosen destination, right?"

"We have only a rudimentary understanding of how the staff functions, Robin. It was fortunate that we had managed to somewhat understand how to use the staff to warp instead of its other functions."

"So what you're saying is…"

"While we can probably use the staff to warp, warping to our chosen destination is much less certain. I would estimate our odds of warping to the destination of our choice to be about fifty percent."

"Why only fifty?"

"Might I remind you that we had only a few days to continue our research before Morgan barged in and persistently insisted that we 'give her something'?"

"At least you guys got results. And we got a good reputation of beating otherwise impossible odds."

"Why the rush now, though? Surely it'd be best to give everyone more time and hopefully increase the chances of warping us to our destination safely?" Chrom asked.

"Because you know who's not waiting? Walhart, that's who!" Robin retorted. "Oh no, right now he's making his way to Rigel with his own retinue, probably to regroup and get all his heavy equipment in preparation for a long war involving besieging our strongholds. It'll be a long and bloody conflict once that happens. But! At this moment in time, Walhart has left a sizable part of his army behind on garrison duty and to fight our agents in his territory while he makes his way to Rigel. And while he's making his way to Rigel with his retinue…"

"He's vulnerable," Chrom finished.

"Exactly. This is probably the best chance we'll have at taking him down without being massively outnumbered. All we have to do is gather our forces in front of his route and set up an ambush. If he manages to get to Rigel, then it'll be a lot more difficult for us since we're not equipped for siege warfare."

"So why are we only warping the Shepherds instead of the entire army?"

"Miriel?"

"While the Goddess Staff is unquestionably powerful, there is no guarantee that it has the power to warp every soldier present in the city," Miriel explained. "Furthermore, the staff has been exposed to the elements and buried in the desert for a significant amount of time. I fear that were we to push it too hard, it would simply break."

"I see. So it's just us Shepherds, then?"

"Don't worry, it's just us getting warped. I've given instructions for soldiers here and stationed in Renacia to mobilize and move out to our meeting location. We'll leave some forces to defend in case something unexpected happens, but taking down Walhart should neutralize anything unexpected happening."

"You don't think Walhart's remnants would want to avenge him by pushing into our territory?"

"They're not going to be organized enough for that. Tyrants tend to monopolize power around themselves and generally not have elaborate succession or backup plans in case of their untimely demise. Besides, his self-serving allies probably like living more than they like him," Robin stated matter-of-factly. "We take down Walhart and the rest of his empire should follow."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's get to it."

"Yes, let's."

"Dad! Everyone is gathered to meet us in the courtyard as ordered," Morgan reported as she ran up to them.

"Great. How about—"

"We've managed to get several supplies also," Morgan said preemptively. "Good thing you told everyone to be ready to move out at a minute's notice! Otherwise it would've taken a lot longer to gather everything and everyone."

"Good job, Morgan." Robin smiled and ruffled his daughter's hair.

They then arrived at the courtyard where everyone was gathered.

"Okay, people! You're probably wondering why I've summoned you all here out of nowhere, but should've at least expected something like this since I told you to not to get too comfortable and be ready to move out at a moment's notice. Now, I assume you've been briefed?"

Silence.

Robin turned to his daughter questioningly.

"Don't look at me, Dad. I was too busy getting everyone out here to tell them what was going on," Morgan said defensively. "Speaking of, what actually is going on?"

"...Huh. Guess my excitement got the better of me if I didn't clue in my own daughter," Robin muttered.

"Hey, why did we suddenly get called out here out of nowhere?!" Severa demanded. "Some of us were doing important things, like sampling local makeup and looking for cute outfits!"

Robin chose to ignore that little outburst and addressed the gathered Shepherds.

"Okay, long story short, we're going to try something and mass warp ourselves to be in a position to ambush Walhart. You can save your questions until after our warp. And before any of you ask, Flavia is staying behind to rally our troops and coordinate their departure from here and the meetup at our agreed location!"

"And I shall be taking part in this strike as well," Say'ri announced, approaching the group.

"Yes, right. Say'ri will be joining us on our little trip. Now I know that it's a bit funny having Chon'sin's ruler accompany us on such a dangerous mission, especially since she got back not too long ago, but Say'ri insisted she come along. And don't worry, since her people are going to keep Chon'sin running. Say'ri will also help us navigate the lands at our location as well as liaise with local allies."

"Uh…" Lissa raised her hand.

"Please save your questions until after we get to our destination," Robin said. "Now, does anyone have any further questions? No? Great! Let's gather up and let Miriel do her magic!"

"Mother?" Laurent approached Miriel with a concerned expression.

"Peace, Laurent. While the timing is far from ideal, I am confident that we understand enough about the staff to successfully teleport the army."

"If you have faith, Mother. I will trust your judgement."

"Noted and appreciated. Now, if you will kindly join me in preparing the incantation…"

Laurent and Miriel closed their eyes and started chanting. Before long, the staff started glowing and Robin felt the familiar weightless sensation when someone used a warp staff on him…

---

When the light cleared and Robin opened his eyes, he could immediately tell something was wrong.

"...The hell are we? This doesn't look like where we were supposed to be!"

Robin expected to find himself in a forest or among some hills. Instead, he found himself in some kind of grassy field.

"The air is sweet here. It's so calming…" Chrom remarked.

"Makes you want to just flop down and take a huge nap, doesn't it?" Lissa said, sighing contentedly.

Lucina nodded. "That certainly sounds tempting…"

"No one's resting or sleeping anywhere!" Robin snapped. "Not until we can at least figure out where we are!"

"Dad?" Morgan pulled on Robin's sleeve. "Do you know what the others are talking about?"

"The only way the air feels different around here is because it's not where we were supposed to end up!" Robin said irritably, looking at his surroundings to try to find a landmark or something to help him get an idea of where they were.

"Fie, can it be…?"

"Say'ri, please tell me you know where we are."

"I...believe that this is Naga's Cradle. It is said that the divine dragon once called this place home."

"Oh good. At least someone recognizes where we are now, if you could point on our little map here where—"

"Actually, I have seen reports that the Voice has been sighted in this area."

That got Lucina's attention. "Lady Tiki has been sighted here?"

"Aye. Supposedly the Voice is here to enact a holy rite to commune with Naga and regain her power."

"A bit reckless for her to be doing that without any protection…" Robin mumbled under his breath. "Anyway, we don't even know if these rumors are true or not. The best course of action should be—"

"Hey, what's that light?" Morgan asked, pointing to the distance.

"Who cares? We really need to—"

"Could it be the Voice?" Chrom squinted. "We need to check it out."

"Aye." Say'ri nodded. "Ensuring the Voice's safety should be our top priority given her importance to the people."

Robin opened his mouth to protest but gave up when everyone started walking.

"Why do I ever bother…"

As it turned out, the light that Morgan saw was indeed Tiki. Tiki, who was currently sitting with her legs crossed and her eyes closed.

Lucina approached cautiously. "Lady Tiki."

Tiki remained silent.

"Lady Tiki?"

"Pray be silent, milady. The Voice is currently performing the rite. In doing so, she will draw the divine dragon's power from the land unto herself," Say'ri explained.

"Forgive me!" Lucina stepped back immediately. "I didn't realize. I thought she was sleeping."

"She looks so peaceful," Lissa commented. "What do you think she sees? Think she dreams?"

"Hopefully her dreams will consist of waking up so that we can get out of here," Robin grumbled. "How long does this little ritual take? We have a schedule to keep!"

"Please have some respect," Say'ri said disapprovingly. "You are standing before the Voice of Naga. Although she may not be able to hear you, she still demands the respect—"

"Yikes!"

Everyone turned to the source of the outburst.

"Yarne?" Lucina said questioningly.

"Sorry for that, but I got a bad feeling." Yarne shivered. "You know, that same feeling before something bad happens or we get ambushed."

Robin sighed. "Great, are we really—"

"No, Yarne is correct," Panne interrupted. "There is a foul stench in the air. And it approaches from all sides."

"What's this, then?"

"Nothing good," Cordelia said, passing her spyglass to Robin.

"It's always nothing good…" Robin gazed at the distance to see a dark cloud. He then cursed when he made out what that cloud was made of.

"Dad?"

"We have basically a horde of heavily-armed Risen riding wyverns and griffons coming at us at an alarmingly high speed. And here I thought this day started out so well..."

"Fie, what misfortune is this? If not Walhart, then these foul abominations!" Say'ri spat. "The Voice is defenseless in this state. We must become her shield until the rite is complete. We await your strategy, Robin. Make us as a wall of steel!"

"A wall of steel that shoots arrows and heavy wind spells. Okay, listen up, people…!"

---

"I hate Risen, I hate wyverns, I hate Risen on wyverns…!"

"Cheer up, Dad!" Morgan chirped beside him as they walked through the camp. "We totally sent those things back to whatever evil hole they crawled out of!"

"Yeah, although more Risen flying from everywhere else was an unwelcome surprise…"

"It's nothing you couldn't handle."

Morgan's unwavering faith in him always made Robin smile and lifted his spirits. Her consistently optimistic mood also helped.

So the battle generally went well despite the fact that they were caught unawares by basically a swarm of armed Risen on ferocious flying beasts. It went well despite getting harder when Robin saw there were other Risen swarms approaching from the east and the west. The only upside was that the Risen were so focused on trying to get to Tiki that they basically ignored the Shepherds, making shooting the Risen down slightly easier. Of course, it never took one arrow to take them down since those Risen were extremely tough, and they didn't take too kindly to getting shot at. But still, everyone made it out alive. Tiki snapping out of whatever trance she was, transforming into her dragon form and proceeding to wreak havoc on the remaining Risen was a nice little surprise though. Finally, fate decided to give Robin a break!

"True. Also I guess I learned some valuable things today."

"You sure did!" Morgan agreed enthusiastically. "...Like what?"

"Like someone being ready to move on the next tier of spells."

"Really? Who? If you mean Brady, then I gotta be honest, Dad, as hard as he works on his magic, I think he may keel over if he casts anything more than an Elfire spell."

"Brady really trains that hard at magic?" Robin asked, surprised.

"Yeah. He's been on the training grounds with his practice tomes for a while now. I think his parents tutoring him was the only thing that prevented him from overextending and getting himself to an early grave." Morgan paused. "Wait a minute, you didn't know about Brady's magic?"

"I was kind of busy with the whole war planning and keeping us alive, Morgan."

"Then who were you talking about before?"

"I'll give you three guesses."

"Of all the people who are training in magic, those who are in training narrows it down to…"

"Morgan."

"Dad?"

Robin looked at his daughter pointedly.

Morgan looked around before realization hit.

"Dad, really?!"

"Yep." Robin nodded, smiling. "I've watched you and your magic training. Have to say, your level of learning and improvement is so good it's honestly a bit frightening. And today I've watched you cast a bunch of spells without tiring out, which means…"

"I get to move on to the spells that hit really hard! Finally!" Morgan pumped her first in the air and hugged Robin tightly. "Thanks, Dad! I promise I'll do my best and master these spells in no time and throw tornadoes at bad guys right beside you in no time!"

"I have no doubt you will," Robin said, smiling. "Just make sure you don't wear yourself out and collapse in the middle of training."

"Dad, I did that one time…!"

"I know, dear." Robin hugged his daughter tightly. "And there were other things we learned today about the others."

"Oh?"

"And here they are!" Robin announced as he and Morgan approached Vaike, Noire, and Virion.

"Eek!" Noire yelped in surprise.

"If it isn't our resident tactician, once again guiding us through another glorious victory!" Virion announced rather grandly. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"He's probably here to congratulate ol' Teach on a job well done shootin' down those Risen with his awesome bow skills," Vaike bragged. "Am I right or am I right?"

"You know, that would get you a witty or cutting remark," Robin noted wryly. "But you're actually right today, Vaike."

"Wait, really?"

"Enjoy it while you can, since I am indeed here to congratulate you on a job well done. A job well done because you have exceeded my admittedly low expectations for you by proving you can handle a bow."

"Never underestimate the Vaike!"

"And I suppose the congratulations should be extended to you too, Virion. You seem to have more skill and patience than I gave you credit for. You did manage to actually get Vaike up to being able to use a bow and not get himself killed on the battlefield."

"Robin, why must you always dismiss my endless talents and reminders of said talents? Why, to be so cruelly discarded despite my obvious beneficial—"

"That's exactly why I don't give you the time of day," Robin interrupted. "I give you just a hint of praise and you go on your extremely verbose and dramatic speeches of how good you are. We appreciate how good you are, but could really do without the other part."

"But where would the fun be if not for the reminders?" Virion asked, a cheeky smile on his face. "In all seriousness, I am more than happy to be of assistance, even if it means taking on almost impossible tasks…"

"Looks like you're the one to go to if we want to turn something around to 'possible' from 'almost impossible.' That's almost as good as Dad!" Morgan said.

Virion smiled wryly. "I will take that as a compliment."

"Anyway, I assume we also have you to thank for training up Noire here," Robin said, turning to the timid archer.

"I-I didn't do all that much…" Noire mumbled.

"The young lady here is being modest! She's a natural with the bow if ever I saw one. Much easier to teach than some of my other students…"

"It's because I had a very good teacher. Thank you, Sir Virion," Noire said gratefully.

"My dear, still with the formalities?"

"O-oh. I'm sorry. I guess it takes getting a little used to since you're still my teacher, superior, and elder…"

"I'm not that old!"

"That's not—!"

"Okay, okay. Bottom line's that we all did good and are all awesome bunch of archers," Vaike declared.

Robin nodded. "Yes, yes you are. That was actually why I was—"

"Which means that we won our little bet!"

"...Our what?"

"Which means that you'll have to give up your next piece of Sumia's pie to us!" Vaike finished, grinning.

Robin's smile disappeared immediately. "I'll have to what?"

Morgan could sense the sudden shift in her father's mood and the waves of hostility radiating from him, so she tried to signal to Vaike to stop talking about this.

"Yeah, you remember our bet? Virion would help me get good at the bow, and in return, you'd give the Vaike first dibs on that sweet, sweet pie of yours?"

Unfortunately Vaike, not being the most observant of people, was totally missing Morgan's signals.

"I don't recall ever committing myself to such a bet," Robin said curtly. "Besides, you don't seem to need any bet to just invite yourself over and help yourself to my pie whenever I have it!"

"Yeah, but that always involves hagglin' and arguin' and you never give up your pie without a fight! It'll save us all a lot of hassle if you just hand your pie over."

Robin narrowed his eyes.

"Stop talking…" Morgan mumbled.

"Come on, I learned how to shoot the bow and everythin' for this! Virion, back me up here."

"I really hope you learned how to fight with the bow because you want to increase your chances of survival on the battlefield and not because you wanted to get your hands on my pie," Robin stated flatly.

"Yeah yeah, that too." Vaike waved dismissively. "Virion? Give ol' Teach here a vouch here, would ya?"

Robin raised a brow and looked over at the archer.

"Good archery skills should be its own reward," Virion said. He then grinned. "Although a guaranteed piece of the lovely Sumia's pie would be a sufficient reward for my tireless efforts to mould a competent archer out of Vaike…"

Morgan facepalmed as Robin scowled.

"You were in on this pie conspiracy from the start, weren't you?"

"U-um…" Noire timidly raised her hand. "Are we done talking about how well we did today…?"

Robin remained silent as a thought occurred.

"Oh boy…" Morgan recognized that look in her father's eyes.

"Yes, Noire. Good job today, as I was saying. Now we're moving on to how someone here was giving you inappropriate looks and had equally inappropriate intentions toward you."

"W-what?"

"You."

"Gah!"

Virion jumped back as Tharja appeared behind him.

"I knew that you'd slip up eventually," the sorceress growled, expression dark.

"B-but—! I—!" Virion tried to protest.

"Heya, Virion!" Henry approached the group casually. "A little bird told me that you were going to go all 'philanderer' on my kid. I don't wanna believe it since you were a pretty stand-up when you were training, but, you know. Gotta investigate and all that."

"The time for investigating is over. Now it's time for cursing," Tharja said, her hand glowing purple.

"Mother! Father! Please!" Noire tried to calm the situation. "Virion didn't do anything!"

"Y-yes! I have been nothing but the gentleman with Noire during our sessions!" Virion swore.

"Yeah, that checks out. I was more talking about this one…" Robin titled his head to Vaike.

"What, me?!"

Tharja and Henry both turned to look at Vaike.

"You had designs on my daughter?" Tharja's expression got darker.

"You're creeping on our Noire? Aren't you married and with a child of your own?" Henry was smiling, but it was strained.

"H-hey, this isn't—! The Vaike's not—!"

"Remember, no death curses!" Robin said merrily as he walked away, leaving a nervous Vaike and flustered Noire to diffuse the situation with her parents.

"Jeez, Dad. Was that really called for?" Morgan asked.

"He tried to weasel himself a piece of my pie. And this is on top of all those times he stole my pie! He's lucky me throwing him to Henry and Tharja was the only thing I did…" Robin said with a completely serious expression.

"They're not going to kill him or anything, right?"

"No. I made it very clear they're not allowed to kill their teammates. Doing so will involve a lot of headaches and paperwork. Also I'll get very upset if I spent all this time and energy keeping everyone alive only for them to die due to some dumb non-war related incident."

"So...Vaike's gonna be okay, then?"

"He'll be fine," Robin said dismissively.

"Ah, there you are."

Robin and Morgan both looked up to see Tiki approaching them.

"My lady," Robin greeted, bowing respectfully.

"Please, just 'Tiki' will do. Treat me as you would another member of this army."

"Oh good." Robin sighed, relieved. "I was a bit nervous having basically the most important religious figure in the land among us. Like, how was I supposed to address you? Thank you for solving that little problem for me."

Tiki smiled. "You are very welcome."

"And on that topic, I have to say that watching you fight today was quite something."

"Oh yeah! We were getting worried about how long it was taking you to snap out of your trance while we were being swarmed by Risen, but once you woke up and transformed into your dragon form, you really went to town! It was really cool seeing you tear through the Risen like they were nothing but wet tissue paper!" Morgan enthused.

"Thank you. Although I've acquired only a fraction of the power of the ritual, it was still enough to turn the tide of battle. My, how I missed being in the heat of battle…!" Tiki trailed off, her gaze lingering on Morgan. "How curious…"

"Uh...is there something on my face again?"

"Ah, my apologies. I seem to have been staring."

"Is there anything particular about my daughter that's worth staring at?" Robin asked.

"Your daughter?"

"Oh. Right. I guess we didn't really explain it all last time we met, huh? It'll...take some time. Maybe later on?"

"Very well. My apologies if I seem somewhat forgetful. I had barely woken up the last time we met, and I fear that I may have forgotten some details in my drowsy state."

"I guess waking up after a nap lasting several hundred years will do that to you," Robin quipped.

That actually made Tiki chuckle. "Indeed."

"So, about Morgan…"

"It's her aura," Tiki clarified. "There is something about it that seems so familiar, but I can't seem to put my finger on it. It's similar to…"

"Oh, that. Yeah, I get that a lot," Morgan said casually.

Robin raised a brow. "...You do?"

"Oh yeah. Mostly when I'm talking to Nah. She tries to sniff me from time to time since she says that should help her grasp why my aura seems so familiar, but she can never quite put her finger on it no matter how hard or much she sniffs around me."

"Uh...what?"

"Yeah, I don't get it either." Morgan shrugged. "Although this makes twice now manaketes have said that there's something funnily familiar about me. Ooh, do you think that I may be part dragon?!"

"Morgan—"

"Or maybe I'm somehow secretly a dragon related to Naga! How cool would that be?!"

"Let's calm ourselves, shall we?" Robin said, amused at his daughter's wild thought process. "As fun as being the father of a distant dragon relative of Naga would be, there should be a much more logical explanation for this."

"Sure, if you want to be all boring about it…"

"Do you have any thoughts?" Tiki asked.

"Well, back when we found my daughter in some magical ruins, we were actually there in search of something called 'Naga's Tear.' Turned out it was a vial of some sort."

"A vial of some sort with some funny-tasting liquid inside," Morgan added.

"You drank the contents?" Tiki asked.

"Well not on purpose! It was after the battle and I was really thirsty and Dad was holding this thing that looked like it had water in it. Funny-tasting water. Kinda sweet." Morgan scrunched her nose as she recalled the taste.

"She seemed to be perfectly fine after—Miriel confirmed as much," Robin said.

"More than fine, actually! Better than usual! Felt like I could take on an entire army and not break a sweat."

"And because my dearest daughter here has chugged that rare liquid before we had a chance to properly examine it, we don't know what it actually was or what it did."

"Didn't seem to do anything and I was totally fine after!" Morgan paused. "You don't think they were the actual tears of Naga, do you?"

Tiki opened her mouth to speak.

"Whatever that stuff was, it probably has some connection to Naga, which is probably why you smell familiar to our resident manaketes," Robin said and turned to Tiki for confirmation.

"That...may explain it, yes."

Morgan sighed. "Aw, that's nowhere near as cool as me being a dragon and being related to Naga…"

"Life's full of disappointments," Robin said sympathetically.

Tiki watched father and daughter curiously.

"Erm…" Robin noticed Tiki staring again. "Tiki? Do I have something on my face?"

"Ah? Goodness, was I staring again?"

"A bit, yeah. Found something interesting?"

"It's curious. Much like with your daughter, there is a sense of familiarity about you. You look remarkably like someone I used to know."

Morgan lit up. "Is—"

"No, Morgan. I doubt that I'm a dragon."

"You could at least hope, Dad."

Robin looked at Tiki for her to continue.

"Actually, you remind me of someone called Marth," Tiki said. "Many ages past, this was. He was wise, calm, and fair, but possessing an inner strength as resilient as steel."

"Marth?" Robin repeated, not expecting this answer. "As in, the warrior king of legend?"

Morgan whistled. "That's not bad, Dad. It's not being a dragon, but being like the Hero-King is pretty good too!"

"The very one," Tiki confirmed. "I had the honor to call King Marth a friend. So perhaps you can understand why I gazed upon you with nostalgia and...longing."

"But how does Dad remind you of the Hero-King?" Morgan asked. "He doesn't look anything like—"

"Morgan, let me have this!" Robin interrupted. "It's not every day I get told I remind people of the Hero-King of legend. Besides, if you recall, I used to have blue hair just like him."

"...You did?"

"Of course I did! Where do you think you got your current hair color, huh? Oh wait, you weren't here for that saga, huh? Well all you need to know is that I had blue hair before which probably made me look more like the Hero-King than my current, less good white."

"But if Dad reminds you of Marth, who does Chrom remind you of?" Morgan asked, turning to Tiki. "Since, you know, Chrom is actually Marth's relative."

"Chrom may be Marth's relative, yes, but he is not like Marth," Tiki responded. "He is much more direct, and committed to what he believes is right. Chrom might more resemble a different ancestor, from the age I was born in. Another great man in their line, from 1000 years before Marth... But the Marth of my time was wise and fair, and won hearts with his kindness."

"I see." Robin nodded. "So when you say I resemble Marth, you weren't talking about my appearance."

Tiki shook her head. "No. I was referring to your soul. An aura of kindness and goodness surrounds you, Robin. Just as it did wise King Marth."

"Wow. Coming straight out of the Voice's mouth. Not bad, Dad."

"Not bad indeed. Flattering, really. To think that my soul resembles that of the Hero-King…" Robin had a faraway look in his eyes.

"What is it, Mar-Mar?"

Robin and Morgan both looked at Tiki curiously.

The manakete's eyes grew wide as she realized what she said. "Ah! Forgive me! I was in the habit of calling Marth by that name… It must have slipped out by mistake. Gracious, the resemblance is so uncanny, it's making me forget what millennium it is!"

"I suppose there are worse people to be mistaken for," Robin said, trying to sound nonchalant despite the fact that this did wonders for his ego.

"Please, forgive me," Tiki said.

"Think nothing of it. Heh, I can't wait to tell Chrom."

"Dad?"

"Come on, Morgan, you heard what Tiki just said. My soul reminds her of the Hero-King's! How cool is that? She basically said that I'm more like Marth than Chrom! And Chrom's actually related to him! Man, I'm totally going to rub this in his face! And he can't say anything because this actually came direct from Tiki, who's been there and knew Marth himself! Oh, this is going to be good…" Robin rubbed his hands gleefully.

"But is Chrom not your friend?" Tiki asked.

"Yes. My best friend, in fact."

"And you are going to use your resemblance to Marth to…"

"Basically brag that I'm more related to the Hero-King than he is, an actual descendant of the Hero-King."

"...It is a very peculiar way to treat your best friend," Tiki remarked.

"Must be a guy thing," Morgan suggested.

"Human relations are so fascinating…"

"Anyway, enough about that. We were here to…" Robin trailed off. "...What were we here to do again?"

"We were here to ask one very important question," Morgan said seriously.

"Please ask and I will do my best to answer."

"Were you…"

"Yes?"

"Stronger and rarer when you were young?"

"I…" Tiki blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"See, because we have a card game going on right now," Morgan said, reaching into her coat and taking out her deck. "It's based off of history and myths and stuff. I think Dad told you about it before when we first met? Anyway, this game features cards based on your likeness and people you knew!"

"Yes, I remember. I believe your father gave me a card of Marth when last time we met."

"Yeah, he did do that, didn't he? Anyway, believe it or not, this game also features you! Two of you, to be more precise." Morgan took two cards out of her deck. "A young version of you as well as the current, older one."

"Oh my." Tiki looked at the cards.

"Yeah, art's okay, I guess. Could've been better, but what's done is done. Anyway, if you look at the cards, you'll see that the younger version of you is a rare card, which is what the golden border indicates. And the older version of you comes in either common or uncommon, with bronze and silver borders respectively."

"I...see…"

"So basically what Dad and I were wondering was if you were more powerful when you were young."

"I—"

"Because why else would they make the younger you the highest rarity while having the current you be common? And it's not like the stat differences are that different between the two."

"Also the current you is arguably better since you can retaliate against ranged enemies and are easier to merge up due to your more accessible rarity."

"Yeah, so what gives?"

Father and daughter both looked at Tiki expectantly.

"I...believe that these are questions for the developer of the game rather than myself," the manakete said slowly, trying to unpack the barrage of unfamiliar information hurled at her.

"I guess, but there has to be lore reasons, right?" Morgan insisted.

"Well, actually that's not strictly true," Robin said.

"What?"

"I mean, if lore was the only reason, then we wouldn't have the likes of Marth and Eliwood in the uncommon packs. And if Eliwood is in the common packs, why is Lyn rare? And Ninian too, for that matter."

"Dad, you're just upset you can't get Ninian despite buying a bunch of packs that featured her."

"It's not fair! How much money does a man have to spend in order to get one damn dragon dancer?!" Robin cried.

"Well..."

"I don't need you rubbing in how fast you got her."

"To be fair, it wasn't on my first try…"

"I don't want to hear it!"

Morgan smiled smugly.

"Anyway," Robin tried to get the conversation back on track, seeing Tiki's confused expression, "We'll take your advice and write to the developers. And thank you for lending your strength to us during our struggle. To have the Voice fight alongside us should surely prove a major advantage."

"I am happy to assist in any way I can," Tiki said, glad that the conversation was veering back to a topic she could understand. But there was a question she wanted to ask. "If I may be so bold?"

"Yes?"

"Those cards. You said they were based on history and myths, yes?"

"That's right."

"And as you have Marth, that must include the history of this land as well, yes?"

"What, Valm? Oh yeah, we got Valm, Archanea, Valentia, everyone! They even got their own special category in the packs."

"Truly? Then Marth isn't the only one you have from that era?"

"He's just one of many. Look!" Morgan shifted through her cards. "We got the likes of Gordin, Jeorge, Draug, Linde, Camus, among others."

"How very fascinating…"

"And that's not even the entire gang! We're still missing a bunch of people from Archanea that will probably be added later."

"Would you mind terribly if I examine those cards?" Tiki asked.

"Wanna compare how the artists' rendition of these characters compares to how you remember them? Then I can do you one better!"

Robin watched as Morgan reached into her coat and unfolded a board.

"The bigger ones with the life-sized models are too big and troublesome to carry around, so we'll have to make do with the earlier version for now. But look!" Morgan placed a Marth card on the board.

Tiki gasped as a figure materialized.

"Ta-da! The board turns the card into a figure!" Morgan explained. "It's based on the picture on the card, though. So, how does it compare? I hear the artists were instructed to be as historically accurate as possible."

"They have done a fantastic job," Tiki said, gazing at the Marth figure with wonder. "It's almost as if he's…"

"A bit small, but we can get a life-sized one for you later on when we set up the board. Him and the rest of the Archanea characters as currently available."

"I would very much like to see that."

"You can even play the game if you want," Morgan suggested.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, yeah! It's hard at first, but once you get the hang of it—"

"Okay, Morgan, that's enough bothering Tiki about our little card game," Robin intervened before his daughter could continue. "I think she may have better things to do than play awesome and complicated games with us."

"It seems rather interesting, actually. But perhaps I could observe as a start?" Tiki suggested. "I would also be grateful if you could show me some of the Archanea characters with their proper sizes. It will be...nostalgic."

"And thus begins the first step to net yet another player…" Morgan muttered victoriously.

"I don't know whether to be worried or impressed," Robin said.

"My lady!"

Say'ri rushed to them, followed by Chrom and Lucina.

"Hello, Say'ri," Tiki greeted calmly.

"My lady, I thank the heavens above that you are safe."

"Safe? Why would I be otherwise?"

"The battle was just concluded and I was by your side, congratulating you along with the others. I look away for but a moment and find you gone! With the suddenness of your disappearance I could only imagine the worst."

"Thank you for your concern, Say'ri, but you have nothing to fear. I was just getting to know our resident tactician and his daughter."

"Oh dear. I must apologize for any disrespect shown or absurdities uttered," Chrom said. "These two may be gifted in the art of battlefield tactics, but the price of that is—"

"Hey, we're standing right here!" Robin cried indignantly.

"Yeah! And for your information, we haven't said anything disrespectful or absurd!" Morgan added. "We were just doing the usual tactical assessment and getting a new card player in the process!"

Say'ri and Lucina looked at Morgan questioningly.

"I'll talk to them," Chrom said.

Tiki chuckled. "Please, pay it no mind. Your tacticians are quite colorful characters. Speaking with them was a refreshing experience."

"My lady?"

"So different than the usual worshippers and those asking for divine favor. It's been such a long time since I've spent time with humans…" Tiki sighed wistfully. "I look forward to spending time with all of you."

"So hath spoken the Voice," Robin announced dramatically. "She also said that me and Morgan were pretty cool as far as she was concerned."

"Okay, Robin," Chrom said, rolling his eyes. "Why don't we show Lady Tiki around while you continue making your rounds. We can all talk strategy later on."

"We're on a first-name basis with each other, by the way!" Robin shouted as the others escorted Tiki away. "She's really fine with it!"

"I can't believe those guys thought we could say anything inappropriate to Tiki," Morgan huffed. "That's actually pretty insulting!"

"I can't really blame them," Robin said, shrugging. "We're lucky Tiki is laid back instead of a snooty noble. Can you imagine what it would've been like if we had to, I don't know, kneel and pray to her every time we saw her or something?"

"Sounds like a huge pain."

"And if she heard that and was a petty, vengeful Voice, then she'd probably either ditch the war in offense or curse us for a hundred years. So in conclusion, our friends were right to be careful with us."

"I guess, but it still feels insulting."

"Don't worry. We'll rub the fact that I'm more like Marth than Chrom is in his face later on. That'll show him."

"Yeah!"

"Heeeeey, Robin!"

"What the he—"

"No, idiot! Wait!"

Robin and Morgan both watched as Cynthia ran up to them, followed by Severa.

"So how did we do today?" Cynthia asked eagerly.

"How did you do today...what?"

"You know, on the battlefield? I think I pulled some of my best moves out there in the air against those smelly Risen," Cynthia stated proudly. "I even blasted out my magic. What did you think of that?!"

"...Where were you today?"

Cynthia's face fell.

"Hey, in my defense, there was a lot happening and even though I'm a man of many skills, I can't keep track of every little thing on the battlefield!"

"She was guarding Tiki with you and the small group you assigned to yourself," Morgan informed helpfully.

"With me?" Robin thought back. "I thought that was Sumia in the air blasting wind spells?"

"And I was right there with her!" Cynthia said proudly. "We knocked a bunch of those Risen out of the air with our combined wind power!"

"I'm really going to have to see what you're capable of with the magic. I can't believe you never told me about this before!"

"I thought you knew since you never asked!" Cynthia looked over to Severa standing awkwardly to the side. "And I wasn't alone! Severa helped you out today too!"

"Hey, I—"

"Oh yeah. She was right there on the ground, shooting arrows at those Risen. Pretty impressive, huh?" Cynthia said eagerly.

Robin raised a brow and turned to Severa. "...You can use a bow?"

"I can hold my own with one," replied the mercenary casually. She didn't elaborate and explain that she picked up archery because she was inspired by Noire, who also took up the bow because of her lack of magic knowledge. Of course, for Severa it was the lack of her magic abilities in general, but the thought was the same.

"So does everybody have secret talents that they have and just don't bother telling me?!" Robin exclaimed, frustrated. "I conduct interviews with you people when we first find you for a reason! Not telling me things impedes my tactical decision making and shuts off avenues that I may have otherwise explored if I knew your full skill sets!"

"But—!"

"No buts! Tomorrow morning, you are going to report to me for a long and in-depth assessment of your skills and abilities! You better not leave anything out if you want us all to survive this war!"

"We can always—"

"It's too late now. You two, my tent, tomorrow. Don't leave anything out! We'll be there for the entire day if we have to!" Robin was about to walk away before turning back. "And good job today with the Risen. I may have been busy, but I did see how many of them dropped to the sky around me. Even if it wasn't all you, you showed you can work together with the other fliers seamlessly, Cynthia. Severa, I don't know. Virion will have to be the judge of how well you shoot. Would be helpful if it was very well. Now see you two tomorrow and I better have a full list of your abilities!"

And with that, Robin stormed away.

"He really did mean it when he congratulated you on a job well done," Morgan said. "It's just that was tempered by him being not too happy you guys didn't tell him your extra skills."

"Morgan! We're leaving!"

"Coming, Dad!"

Morgan gave the two girls a thumbs up and ran after her father.

"I think that went well," Cynthia stated confidently, watching Robin and Morgan walk away.

"In what way can that ever be considered as having gone well?" Severa asked flatly. "We basically just got yelled at and now have an appointment to get lectured!"

"Yeah, but Dad also congratulated us on how well we fought," Cynthia countered. "Also, this gives us the chance to wow him tomorrow with all our skills that we didn't tell him about before. Think how impressed he'll be with us when he knows what we're capable of!"

"He seemed to have more praise for you than me…" Severa mumbled.

"All the more reason to tell and show him what you can do."

"I can't believe I let you drag me into this. You do realize that this will probably end up with us getting yelled at again."

"Hey, I want to know more about Dad and the only way to do that is—"

"Obnoxiously butt yourself into his schedule?"

"Make him make time for me," Cynthia corrected. "By any means necessary. And despite your tough exterior, I know you're desperate for his approval."

"I am not!" Severa said, her face reddening.

"Sure you aren't. Regardless, this is the fastest and most direct way to get his attention and get him to spend time with us. You can do it your way, but I think that'll take way too long."

"Unless we end up alienating him by constantly pressing him to spend time with us."

"Not if we have good reasons for it! We got several hours tomorrow, didn't we?"

"Yeah, of lectures."

"You're free to come up with your own ideas, you know."

"I have my hands full trying to keep you from doing anything dumb!"

---

So the day turned into evening, then to night as the Shepherds were introduced to Tiki and relaxed after a gruelling battle. Robin continued to make the rounds, visited Miriel and Laurent and thanked them for their help with the Goddess Staff (as well as wondering when and how they could use it again, and more accurately), and carried out his usual post-battle duties.

While most of the Shepherds retired for the night, Robin worked in his tent trying to figure out the next steps now that his warp plan placed them not where he planned to be.

"Okay, I can do this, I can do this. All I need is to move the timetable slightly by…"

A lot of it was estimates and conjecture, but the schedule Robin had initially planned was tight enough as it was. Them being warped to a location that was not where Robin wanted to be was...troublesome. Robin would obviously make it work, it just made his job more...complicated.

"I feel like half my time is spent trying to figure out timetables and make them work. Damn it!"

Robin growled in frustration. Maybe some fresh air would clear his mind and ease his stress.

He parted the flaps of his tent and stepped out…

"Oof!"

...Only to walk into someone.

"Sorry! I wasn't expecting company at this hour," Robin apologized, looking to see who he crashed into. "Lucina?"

"Robin," greeted the princess, dusting herself off.

"What're you doing here? It's a bit late for you to be wandering around, you know."

"I was actually on the night watch."

"Really? Even after our battle today? You fought pretty hard back there, keeping Tiki safe."

"It's no trouble. Besides, I find the night watch soothing."

"Whatever works, I guess," Robin chuckled. "Anyway, what brings you over to my tent? Hope you didn't spot enemy activity around here."

"Actually, I was just doing the rounds when I noticed that the light was still on in your tent."

"Yeah, I don't know if you noticed, but I tend to stay late because of my job," Robin quipped.

"Not too late, I hope."

"It depends. Looks like it'll be a lot more late nights from now on…"

"Robin…"

"Yes, I know you all don't like it when I spend late nights planning and drafting plans and strategizing, but I kind of have to now, especially when we're at this critical juncture in the war."

Lucina crossed her arms.

"Look, the best I can do is promise not to overwork myself to the point that I'm barely functioning during the day."

"I hope you don't make a habit of doing that."

"Gods no. Used to do that in the dark days of when lack of funds and supplies kept me up all night drafting contingencies in case we ran out of money or weapons. It was a tough time…" Robin shivered. "But it's a lot better now. I have lots of help and Morgan's here so I can bounce ideas and stuff off of, so it's only late nights instead of all-nighters."

"If you say so…"

"What do you want from me, Lucina? We are at a critical point in the war and have maybe our best shot to try and end this thing quickly and minimizing casualties. Unfortunately that's also within the context of a very brief window that demands very precise planning and strategizing and all that stuff to ensure that we make it in time!" Robin exclaimed, stepping outside his tent. "And if we fail that, we lose our one and only shot and then have to either undertake a long and bloody siege or else try to bleed Walhart dry, which will also be long and bloody."

Lucina looked at Robin, not expecting the sudden outburst.

"...See, the reason I decided to step out in the first place was because I was feeling a bit stressed trying to keep our timetable, uh, on time. I didn't mean to just yell at you like that. Sorry."

"And this is exactly why we insist that you get some rest and not work yourself too hard. Among other things, it makes you somewhat more irritable than normal."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I am still my loveable and approachable self that I always am."

Lucina looked at Robin wryly.

"Okay, okay. I appreciate the concern and if it means so much to you, I guess I can try to ease up on the working hours. Mind you, I'm not going to compromise if we have an important battle coming up or something. As my friends and colleagues, I want you all to live to see the run rise the next day."

"I would ask for nothing less."

"It's a deal. Funny how we ended up in a situation where you're telling me not to overwork myself."

"I've taken your advice on board since last we talked. Father and Mother also raised their concerns. And I have to admit that the quality of my life has improved since then."

"I guess I have no choice, then. It'll start with you and next thing I'll know is that Sumia and Cordelia will be dragging me to sleep as soon as night hits."

"We look after you because we care, Robin," Lucina said before deciding to try something. "By the way, Robin?"

"Yes?"

"I understand that Cordelia has started sword training, correct?"

"Apparently started a while ago. She's pretty good at it, too, from the little I've seen. Then again, I guess that's just Cordelia for you."

"Indeed, although I believe that she could use a bit of guidance as her primary method of fighting is with lances on her pegasus."

"Really?"

Lucina nodded. "I've seen her practice here and there and while she fights well, there are some areas where she could use your assistance, if possible."

"Mine?"

"I figured that you had experience teaching sword techniques. After all, you've managed to observe and adapt different styles, have you not? Not to mention teaching Mother."

"I always forget that it was me who taught Olivia to fight with the myrmidon style…"

"Mother spoke very highly of you and your teaching methods."

"Well I couldn't just throw her at Lon'qu, now could I?" Robin chuckled. "Very well. I'll make some time to assess her sword skills. Might as well, since I'm already teaching her magic."

"Thank you, Robin. And please, you didn't hear this from me. I believe that Cordelia was hesitant to ask for your assistance since she didn't want to burden you with distractions."

"I tell these people that I'm always available to oversee their professional improvement yet they still feel the need to not ask for my help…" Robin shook his head. "But thank you, Lucina. I'll just say that I have an eagle eye and saw that she could use some extra coaching and that I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart."

"I'm sure she will appreciate it."

Right. That was that one done. Now how to approach the next, slightly touchier, topic…?

"Hey, Lucina?"

"Yes?"

"While I don't mean to badmouth your friends after all they've been through and appreciate their efforts, what the hell is wrong with Severa?"

Well. At least this saved Lucina the trouble of trying to figure out how to approach this.

"Robin, I know Severa may be, shall we say, unsubtle—"

"Oh, if only it were that. I can deal with unsubtle. What I can't deal with is some annoying brat taking constant potshots at me and making annoying, snarky remarks every time I do something!"

"Well—"

"And if that weren't enough, it feels like she makes a conscious effort to seek me out and ruin my day! I can't have that in my life, Lucina. With everything going on I'm about to become very busy trying to circle some squares with regards to scheduling, war plans, and plans in general. I can't have Severa distracting me and making me want to punch something every time she comes to talk to me."

It hurt Lucina to hear Robin talking about Severa this way. Their relationship couldn't start like this. It just couldn't!

"Robin, Severa may be blunt around the edges, but she means well. It's just...we all took the death of our parents in the future differently."

"Yeah, but none of you went to become annoying, rude, and downright mean-spirited individuals! The only one who comes close is Gerome, and he just bites if you approach him. Otherwise, he kind of minds his own business."

This was going to take some work…

"Robin, I know you may not have the best opinion of Severa right now…"

"You got that right."

"But please give her a chance. She is a good person and genuinely cares for everyone and only puts on her mask as a defense mechanism, I suppose. Her bark is a lot worse than her bite."

"That may be, but her constant barking is really pissing me off every time she barks at or near me. And it's been going on for a while now. When will she drop her damn mask and show that good and caring person I hear so much about?"

"Only she may answer that," Lucina said, knowing the real answer and how it wasn't her place to disclose it. "Perhaps when she feels comfortable enough to let her guard down?"

"Well she's sure taking her sweet time," Robin grumbled. "She'd better hurry up, otherwise there'll be no one left to care once she shows us how good of a person she supposedly is."

"Please give her time, Robin. Severa arguably has more matters on her mind to sort through than the rest of us right now. I'm sure you'll change your mind about her once she shows how she really is."

Robin didn't look convinced.

"Please have faith, Robin. Severa will warm up to you and everyone else with time."

"How much damn time does she need? She's been with us for a while now."

"Perhaps it's the stress of the war," Lucina suggested. "I'm certain that once this war is over and she doesn't have it hanging over her, she will soften."

"So I have to put up with her nonsense until we end Walhart?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps it could be sooner if you got to know her."

"Lucina—"

"It pains me so much to see you like this, Robin. Both of you. Please give her a chance? For me."

Robin looked at Lucina's imploring face, the Brand in her eye shining in the moonlight.

"...All right. Fine. I'll...try to keep an open mind about her. For now."

"Thank you, Robin," Lucina said, relieved.

"I'm only doing this because I like you, Lucina. I doubt I'd give the same answer if it was anyone else who asked."

"Even Father? ...Or Cordelia?"

"I'd have to do it if Chrom asked, but I'd be doing it grudgingly. For Cordelia, it'd be reluctantly and more as a favor. You've managed to convince me to keep an open mind and do it on my own free will. See? Your word carries that much weight with me."

Lucina smiled. "I'm honored you place so much importance on what I say."

"You present your arguments very well," Robin said simply. "And I like you. That makes me more inclined to make me listen to what you have to say."

"Do you listen to everyone you like?" Lucina asked playfully.

"The list of people who I listen to and who I listen to are two very different things," Robin said with a serious expression. "I listen to Frederick when he says I have to do more training and I listen to Maribelle when she tries to make a noble out of me. But I listen to you when you make a case for your friends and I listen to Miriel when she reports on potential supply line improvements. See the difference?"

"I do. And I assume the louder the voice, the more you listen to them?" Lucina asked, trying to steer the conversation to the last topic on her list.

"Depends who's being loud. Vaike more often than not gets ignored. Owain too, although his stories are amusing when I have nothing better to do or have a task that doesn't need much brain power."

"And what of Morgan? And say, Cynthia?"

"Morgan is my daughter and helper and understudy. She automatically gets my ear, although I have to steer some of her ideas to the realm of the possible. Our brainstorming sessions are always incredibly productive. As for Cynthia...I don't know. Probably falls in the Owain section, although a lot louder…"

"Have you spent much time with her?"

"Not really. From what I have seen is that I need to rein her in from her more impulsive tendencies. The whole 'hero' thing makes her want to do things that are...unadviseable."

"She has always been quite enthusiastic."

"That's...one way to see it, I guess. She's not lacking for energy, that's for sure. Gets all sorts of wacky ideas in her head and goes off to pursue them. I guess it's endearing, in a way, although also massively exhausting. She actually reminds me of Morgan."

"Is that so?"

A surprising yet positive development.

"Are you kidding? Seemingly has more energy than she knows what to do with, always happy-go-lucky and brimming with overly enthusiastic optimism? Swap out the hero thing for tactics and wanting to be better than me and we'd be describing Morgan. They're so alike they might as well be sisters." Robin laughed softly before pausing. "You don't think…?"

"When you put it that way…"

"That's not funny, Lucina. Don't do that. I can't have more kids dropping out of the sky on me!"

"I apologize, Robin, but you did set yourself up for that."

"Remind me never to joke around with you about the future. Meeting all these kids from the future was enough for one lifetime, thank you very much."

"At least you won't have to worry about it anymore. We have encountered all my friends, after all," Lucina assured.

"Yeah, and a little bit extra on top of that." Robin sighed. "Now it's just a matter of their parents getting together. They'll just have to keep it in their pants until the war is over and done with…"

"Keep what in their pants?"

"Huh?"

Robin looked over to Lucina, who was looking back at him questioningly.

"Uh...their...hands? In their pockets...in their pants. That's, uh, what they have to keep...in there."

"I don't understand."

"It's a present timeline thing. You wouldn't understand," Robin said quickly before changing the subject. "So! You have some friends, huh? And a brother! He's, uh…"

Lucina was confused as to the sudden change in topic but let Robin continue. After all, she had discussed what she wanted to and hopefully helped arrange things to go in the right direction.

Robin seemed to at least not dislike Cynthia, which was reassuring. It was Severa that was going to pose the most problems.

Lucina decided she needed to intervene in order to preserve that relationship long enough for Cordelia to get married. Or at least find her husband, which Lucina hoped would be soon after the war ended. And she had to work hard and fast since on their own Robin and Severa were doing nothing but drifting apart.

So that meant Lucina had to push Cordelia (subtly) in the right direction while trying to keep Robin and Severa from hating each other. There was also the issue with Severa and her relationship with her mother, which Lucina needed to check up on since she remembered it being...complicated. In addition to that, Lucina needed to ensure that Cynthia didn't do anything to jeopardize her relationship with Robin while also keeping an eye on Sumia. And to top it all off, everything had to somehow come together at the same time to ensure that Cynthia's and Severa's parents all find each other and end up together to secure Cynthia's and Severa's existence.

This level of planning made Lucina's head hurt. How did Robin manage to do it? And where would she even start?

Maybe she should take a page or two out of those cheesy romance novels Robin looked down on for some clues. There had to be something there if those books kept selling! On that thought, how did Robin not have more suitors during his life? After all, he did manage to tick several boxes for being the main character in one of those books, being, among other things, smart, charismatic, funny, and approachable.

Lucina looked to see Robin ranting again about something.

It was rather curious. Robin naturally had his flaws, but overall he was quite the catch. But perhaps his lack of suitors was for the best since it certainly made Lucina's plans a lot less complicated.

---

Yes, I know the Goddess Staff doesn't teleport, but it's an ancient and powerful relic thing that was lost in the desert for ages. It has to do more than just heal over a wide area!