The Manakete
The spellbinding play of windchimes still echoed in Lucina's ear. Almost like a dream, the symphony stayed with her, not quite clear in its imagery but laden with a warm feeling that persisted. Against her better knowledge, she scrambled to hold this warmth tight, but the rough stone pressed against her back called her to the present with no remorse.
A little drowsy, Lucina pushed her eyes open – and let out a shriek when she stared into the face of a young girl, whose nose almost touched hers.
"Oh, thank heaven, you're alive," the girl said, and her green bangs fluttered when she sat herself up. "It's so difficult to tell when a human is dead and when they're just sleeping."
Perplexed out of her mind, Lucina robbed a few inches backwards to establish distance between herself and the girl. Her small fingers, covered in red gloves, wandered across every part of Lucina's body, except for the places where one would find a pulse.
Lucina cleared her throat. "And who are you?"
The girl tilted her head and tapped a finger against her cheek with a shaky smile. "Well, uhm, I'm the one who attacked you just now. But I didn't hurt you, I think, at least I hope I didn't? I only realized who you were when the Divine Sword called you to Naga and your body went limp."
"You're the dragon?"
The girl shared about as much likeness to a fire-spewing dragon as a butterfly to a grown eagle. Especially when she pouted the way she did now. "How mean. I'm not one of those dumb dragons that devolved into a mindless beast and sits on a treasure all day. I'm a Manakete – that's totally different."
"Sorry…" If the opportunity arose, Lucina would have to refresh her memory on magical beings. The texts in Lycia had often lacked in that regard. "But I assume you are Naga's Voice. Tiki, wasn't it?"
"Yes, that's the name humans gave me." The girl beamed with an infectious, childlike joy.
From up close, she shared a few noteworthy resemblances to Naga, such as the pointy ears and porcelain skin. But Tiki was missing the other's ethereal glow, a fact that made her much easier to look at.
"Again, I'm sorry I jumped at you," Tiki said. "It's been such a long time since I last had company, I guess I forgot my manners. I might have broken a few walls too…"
Indeed, a new dragon-sized hole decorated the arena's righthand side through which a handful of sunbeams entered. This should at least provide them a more convenient exit compared to how Lucina had arrived. No wonder Falchion had remained hidden for so long if one had to fall through the floor to reach it. Not to mention the dragon - no, the Manakete - guarding the sword.
Lucina waved Tiki's excuses away. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Does this mean you have waited here and protected Falchion for eighteen years?"
"I suppose so. I can never tell with the time. The fact that you're here… Mar-Mar won't come, will he?"
Lucina frowned. "Mar-Mar?"
"Oh, right, you probably know him by a different name. This would have been less awkward if he had accompanied you here. That's the way I always liked to imagine it, even if it was a fool's hope. And I had so much time to imagine it, the warmth of his smile at his return... Marth is dead, isn't he?"
Lucina nodded.
All energy fled Tiki at once. Her shoulders slacked, and she wrapped her short summer cape around her. Whether to protect her bare arms from a sudden cold or the rest of herself from the truth, Lucina couldn't tell.
"I knew it would happen," Tiki mumbled. "He was so determined to direct all of the young prince's anger on himself to protect you. He told me he wasn't going to come back. But I still hoped he would somehow make it. Make the impossible seem easy, like he always did… Oh, of course that doesn't mean I'm unhappy to see you. I'm elated! It means Marth succeeded and he can wait for paradise more easily. He deserves it."
The affection with which Tiki spoke about Marth triggered a surge of jealousy in Lucina. Mar-Mar… Apparently, everyone in and beyond Altea, human or not, had known Marth. Except her.
She looked down at Falchion, which rested beside her amidst an assortment of small pebbles. Although the sword no longer looked the same as the weapon her father had wielded, she could at least take comfort in the fact that he had left a memento for her. Not as valuable as an actual memory, but a welcome gift nonetheless.
"How did you and Marth meet?" Lucina asked.
Tiki's face lit up. "Oh, he saved my life. Okay, maybe not my life, it's pretty difficult to kill a Manakete, not that they didn't try. Still, thanks to Marth, I don't have to spend the rest of my days in the cold dungeons of Johtran. That's more than I can ever repay him."
Lucina shuddered. She had heard about Johtran, the whispered tales among the knights in Lycia, a name with a reputation that carried a chill even on the sunniest of afternoons in the palace's orange garden.
Johtran, a prison forged into a snowy cliff deep in the Copper Mountains between Pherae and Altea, where a biting storm howled across the peaks all year around. Johtran, a prison for the most ruthless criminals who didn't deserve the mercy of a quick death. Old kings had carved cells into the glacier, and the prison bars would freeze a man's hand within minutes. No one survived Johtran. Even if the cold didn't catch you, the silence except for the roars of the wind and the cracks in the ice would drive you insane until nothing but a shivering shell remained.
"I'm sorry you had to suffer through this," Lucina said and rubbed her arm to chase away the feeling of cold.
"I'm good now." Tiki beamed. "All thanks to Marth. That's why I wanted to see him again, I think I never really expressed how much I owe him."
"What landed you in Johtran in the first place? I don't suppose you stole an irreplaceable painting from the ancestor gallery in Lycia."
Tiki chuckled, but then the mirth vanished from her face. She switched between moods faster than a child, a quality Lucina found rather difficult to handle.
"Not all people were as friendly towards Manaketes as Marth," Tiki said. "This connection we have to the gods can be abused, and it makes us a danger in the eyes of some people. Eliwood was just the first one to take action."
Eliwood – on the rare occasion that Roy had talked about his father, he had always described him as admirable, not necessarily kind but just in his own way. The reports of Alteans, Naga, and now Tiki painted him in a far less favorable light. If they were to be believed, Eliwood had served as an unknowing puppet to Grima at best and a willing servant at worst. An evilness had taken hold of him, and for that reason he hadn't stopped to consider Marth's innocence in the murder of his wife.
What if a seed of this same evilness rested in Roy? What if Lucina only refused to read the signs because she could not bear the thought of losing him?
No, these thoughts were traitorous. They led nowhere other than a dead end with imagined enemies and conspiracies around every corner. The sins of his father did not stain Roy's hands.
Lucina nodded to herself and rose to her feet. She had wasted too much time already.
"Where are you going?" Tiki asked.
Lucina headed towards the hole in the wall. With a little luck or Naga's favors, the corridor beyond would present her with a faster way out of Seliora's ruins. "I swore to retrieve Falchion, and that's what I did. Not only are there people waiting for me outside, I also don't have a moment to lose if I want to get to Roy. The knights in Persis should help me with that."
Tiki stumbled behind Lucina, through the hole and down the collection of wide hallways stacked with lavish dressers and many more lavish mirrors, most of which lay shattered on the floor.
"But it's dangerous there." The combination of running after Lucina's longer strides and wasting air for tired warnings rendered Tiki's words into a breathless plea. "The Divine Sword may be powerful, but you can't expect it to win every fight for you."
Lucina maintained her brisk pace. If anything, the comment spurred her even more. "Not you too. Why is everyone so adamant about telling me that my plan won't work?"
"At least let me come with you! My abilities might have rusted in the last years, but I can still bite off the arm that's trying to hurt you."
"A dragon might be rather counterproductive in a conversation with Roy. The last thing I want is to anger him more than I already have."
"Please, I just want a chance to help. I owe it to Mar-Mar."
Lucina weighed her options but continued her march through the hallways. A Manakete like Tiki might prove useful, after all, dragons had garnered a reputation to tear through entire armies with ease. And hadn't Lucina worried about the capabilities of her little rebel support party earlier today? Then again, those without a strong liking towards Naga might deem the presence of a Manakete in Lucina's company as problematic.
Roy would have all the more reason to distrust her.
But Marth had trusted Tiki. Their friendship had convinced Tiki to waste eighteen years of her life with waiting for an heir that might have never come, and the vulnerability in Tiki's face as she looked up to Lucina proved that her desire to repay Marth was genuine. Whatever Lucina would command, Tiki would obey. Discarding such a useful tool would be foolish.
"You may accompany me," Lucina said, "but I want you to stay in the background. And don't go telling everyone about your connection to Naga."
Tiki's eyes lit up, and she stumbled in her hasty attempts to jump around Lucina's heels. "Thank you, you have no idea how much this means to me. And I will behave, I promise, whatever it is you want, I'll do it. If you want me to swoop into the skirmish out there and rain fire onto your enemies, I'll transform right now!"
Lucina stubbed her toe on an unsuspecting mirror shard in her path. The minor pang distracted her from the rising confusion, but not enough to forget the question on her mind.
"What skirmish?" she asked between gritted teeth. "What are you talking about?"
The end of the hallway came closer. A beam of light entered through a slit between the heavy gate wings, and the quietness from the insides of Seliora made way for the clatter of metal. Loud, panicked, rhythmless.
If Tiki intended to answer, Lucina gave her no time to do so. With her right hand clutched around Falchion and her other sword clapping against her thigh, Lucina sprinted across the last few yards and threw herself against one of the gates. The iron-framed wood resisted her push with an angry squeal but gave in.
Lucina staggered into the brightness of the morning sun, for a moment dazzled by the stench of smoke and the taste of ash in her mouth. Tiki's feet came to a halt on the stone beside her, but Lucina paid her no mind.
A flight of stairs connected the entrance to Seliora where they were standing and the outskirts of Persis below. Withered box trees fenced the wide steps. The stone burned in the heat.
And halfway between them and the garrison, the rebels and the knights of Persis hacked away at each other under the hungry shrieks of a nosediving wyvern.
Notes: Cliffhanger! I'm sorry, but once in a while, I can't resist making use of this trick. And I can't promise you answers for next week either because it is high time we check in with Ike. I suppose this disadvantage comes with the fanfiction update process compared to a regular book - you as readers have to wait longer for answers. But if this gives you more time to develop theories as to the whys and the hows, maybe that could make the whole experience more fun for you? Either way, I'll see you next week.