Response for a Lilith chapter was near-unanimous across both of the platforms I publish this piece to, so it would be pretty silly of me to make you all wait another year or two for it, right? It's actually a continuation of the previous chapter, so hopefully you've read that one beforehand. Hope you all had a great Easter (and happy birthday Kana!).
Word count: 2,551 words.
.14 - Shigure and Kana and Auntie Lilith
For all the childish hamming up it received, the 'operation' on Shigure's arm was a rousing success with no major hiccups to speak of save for some very uncharacteristic cries from someone ten or so years too old to be letting the hot tears at the corners of his eyes well down his face. In recognition of his bravery for enduring what he radically referred to as a cruel slathering of hot wax on top of molten lava, he was presented with a sugary treat procured from a certain thief's secret stash. In exchange for their complete and utter silence on the matter, he then resigned himself with the heaviest of sighs to a light kiss on either cheek from the both of them, followed by a torrential deluge of indiscernible scribbles, sloppy signatures, and terribly unfunny inside jokes besmirching his bandages.
It was all worth it, however, to see the ray of sunshine on his bubbly sister's smiling face as she threw her arms around him and thanked him for coming to her rescue with a few tears of her own. It seemed Askr was doing an even better job of deepening their sibling bond than the war entrenched world they came from, something that was undoubtedly on account of the world of difference in peace between the relatively tranquil Askran Kingdom and the landmass of war-torn countries so ingrained in hostility that the only place one could expect to find total solace was a castle situated on a completely different plane of existence—so long as it wasn't being invaded by soldiers barely visible to the naked eye that is. Ironically, the few foreign heroes Shigure spoke to on the matter surprised him with how little fazed they were by his tale. It was as if 'humble beginnings warped by inexplicable folly' was a prerequisite for joining the order, resulting in a whole host of heroes who could woefully relate to one another.
"How dreadful," Shigure recalled Libra saying. "Though no more dreadful than slaying an airborne demon atop its own monstrous, prickly back. I would illustrate the fell scene for you in all its grotesque degeneracy myself, were I not so uninterested in the pursuit of committing blasphemy."
Needless to say, the solitude of Askr provided the siblings with all the time in the world to truly get to know each other, time that was cruelly scarce in the Astral Plane and completely nonexistent in the individual Deeprealms from whence they came. In turn, the unfamiliarity of the world beyond the kingdom's borders left Shigure with just enough mystique and concern to become all the more protective of his younger sister. While he was always mindful of her well-being, his brotherly instincts only kicked into overdrive upon their arrival to the castle, sparked by an inherent will to ward her from the evils of Zenith's darkest reaches and whatever else was slinking about in there. Kana, for her part, was content with following her big brother around and not being accused of having any ulterior motives for doing so, as was so often the case whenever she chose to spend an afternoon in his shadow back home.
"Auntie!"
Kana scurried ahead of him as soon as they entered the stables, barreling with a thousand giggles into the apron of Castle Krakenburg's premier stable girl. "Auntie, auntie, auntie!"
"O-oh—whoa!" Lilith stumbled back, barely able to keep herself from tumbling into the steed behind her with one foot off the ground and the other desperately trying to adjust to the dramatic shift in weight. "K-Kana?! W-where did you come fro-aah!?"
"Miss Lilith!" Shigure blinked in horror, promptly making his way over to pull the girl back on her feet. "Goodness, that was close!"
"T-thank you Shigure," Lilith sighed in relief, letting her flailing arms fall to her sides. "At times I feel even clumsier than Felicia in this form..."
"Kana," Shigure began, ready to reprimand the girl. "You mustn't run into people like that. Someone could get hur—"
"Auntie! You're here! You're actually here! You made it!" Kana raved excitedly. "Ehehe, and you get to be a human again! A pretty one too!"
"P-pretty?" Lilith stammered, the near-tumble still fresh on her mind. "O-oh no, I-I wouldn't necessarily say th—"
"You're so pretty, auntie! I always thought you were a cutie patootie as a dragon, but you're even cuter as a person!"
"C-cute?"
"Heehee, uh-huh uh-huh! I have the sweetest, nicest, gentlest, prettiest auntie ever and I love her to bits!"
"U-um, I—!"
"I never got to see you like this back in our world, y'know! That's why I'm so excited! I can't wait to show you everything about the order and how much I've grown!"
"Haah... You certainly aren't trying to hide it," Lilith smiled, returning Kana's embrace with one hand and gently petting her head with the other. "If I may be honest for a moment, I'm still uncertain as to the circumstances behind it, but I'm eternally grateful to have been granted this blessing all the same. Never did I think I would ever be able to take this shape again—to hold you like this for the very first time, to hold Corrin like he used to hold me... It all feels like a dream, and yet..."
To ruminate so much on their state of affairs back home, only to encounter the very girl responsible for at least some part of it. It was all rather fortuitous. At least, it would be if Shigure hadn't intended to head straight to the stables as soon as Midori discharged him from the infirmary. Lilith was a strange case. Not in the sense that she herself was strange (she was actually quite a lovely, selfless young lady), moreso how she came to be. For a time, Shigure and Kana knew her only as the darling dragon responsible for eating copious amounts of food and looking after the realm that contained their base.
According to the sparse knowledge occasionally passed unto him by his father whenever he had the time to play twenty questions (which even then, always prompted him to insist that his upbringing wasn't anything particularly interesting or cheerful, save for his siblings and close friends), Lilith was once a peasant girl who one day boldly came to Castle Krakenburg to swear her services and utmost loyalty to him. With no apparent background, references, or credentials to speak of, coupled with the multitude of servants already handpicked to tend to the isolated Nohrian prince, employment seemed about as likely as King Garon not executing her on the spot for wasting his time with such an outrageous request from what looked to be little more than a cocky commoner unaware of where she was and who she was speaking to.
Fortunately, Lilith's determination shone through and in the end, she managed to impress the court with her almost-supernatural ability to communicate with animals, enough to become a stable girl and win a seat within the prince's inner circle of attendants. He took a liking to her almost immediately, and it wasn't long before he held her in the same regard as the rest of his servants.
All was well, until one day the prince was flung into the Bottomless Canyon by a fell sword prompting Lilith to transform into a fish-like dragon creature thing in order to save him from almost certain death. As it turned out, Lilith was an Astral Dragon only masquerading as a human girl in order to grow closer to the prince, who she considered herself indebted to after he nursed her back to health when he was a young boy and she a tiny, frail dragon. In saving his life, Lilith exhausted the entirety of the astral power reserved for her luxury disguise and reverted back to her true form. Even with the truth out in the open, the prince decided he wasn't going to let it come in the way of their friendship, and when it came time for him to seek out a base of operations for his allies, Lilith came forth with a magic little castle encased in a magic little realm about a hundred or so magic little light-years away in a space between dimensions.
"The end! Hahahaha!" Shigure pictured his father smiling ear to ear. "Just kidding! Spoiler alert, the story's real and it's still going on right now! It's up to us to write the ending!"
As sweet as the tale was, Shigure did not have a clue how any of it made Lilith his father's sister. Perhaps it was a result of growing up with her, as was the case with his Nohrian siblings, or (the more likely explanation) he knew something about her that others did not. Whatever that information was, Shigure was not so disrespectful that he'd sully her first week in Askr by interrogating her about it.
"Miss Lilith," Shigure cleared his throat. "Could this be due to the differences in the magic channeled by this world and ours? That would explain your appearance and mother's pendant, I believe."
"Oh! That's right!" Kana gasped as though she were the one making the breakthrough, fishing her face out of Lilith's apron. "Mama told us she can sing without hurting herself now, didn't she? That has to be it! Ba-da-dadum! Mystery solved! Back to hugging!"
"Mm, I see," Lilith nodded, looking almost wistful as the reality sunk in. "Deep down, I had a feeling that was the case. I suppose I was merely waiting for someone else to make the same connection. So this blessing is only temporary then. I should have expected as much..."
"Oh," Shigure hesitated. He had caught the melancholy in her eyes but wasn't sure how to respond. "It.. It would appear so."
Realizing the sudden shift in mood, Lilith quickly broke away from Kana, her hands waving frantically. "A-ah! W-what am I saying?! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I-I'm speaking out of turn! I usually don't allow myself to get so carried away—or selfish for that matter. I said I was grateful and I truly am! It's self-seeking to behave as though I'm entitled to anything more than that! I never expected to return to this form to begin with, so I shouldn't be acting like—Aah! There I go again!"
Her spiel came across more as a plea to herself than to her niece or nephew.
"Auntie," Kana said plainly, snapping Lilith out of her trance. "I like you whether you're a dragon or a human—and I'm sure big brother, papa, mama, and everyone else do too!"
"Kana..." Lilith hiccuped. She looked up at Shigure, who nodded softly in return.
"You've done a whole lot for all of us, auntie," the little dragon continued, lacing her fingers with Lilith's dainty ones. "If you think about it, you're the whole reason big brother and I are even here, all grown-up and strong! So it's okay to be grateful, happy, and a little selfish too. I know I am, 'cause this is the only way we get to hold hands, heehee!"
There was a sniffle, another hiccup, and a choked sob before Lilith looked at her nephew again. Even as a dragon, he had never seen her eyes so big, puffy, and watery.
"D-darn it," she was already blubbering, her lips trembling and cheeks as red as the ends of her braid. "I-I promised myself as soon as I got here that I wouldn't let this gift go to waste... and that I would continue to be strong f-for Corrin's sake... but if I can be myself for just one moment..."
"Uaaaagh! C-Corri—... big brother...!"
"He's over here," said Lilith. "I made sure to feed him and keep him company while you were away, in addition to cleaning him up of course! It was only a few light nicks, thankfully. He says he's going to be okay."
"Goodness," Shigure approached his pegasus, slightly bruised but no worse than he. "Forgive me for forcing you into such a hellish death trap, Cane. It was incredibly reckless and foolish of me, risking not only my own life but yours as well. Words alone cannot excuse my actions or reverse them. I can only hope that you at least consider things as I saw them in that very moment—from the lens of a weak, desperate brother who loves his sister dearly, left with no other options at his disposal."
The pegasus neighed, easing into Shigure's familiar touch as he petted him. "If I were only faster or stronger," the Falcon Knight lamented. "Perhaps all of this could have been avoided, but we'll never know now, will we?"
"He says he doesn't blame you," Lilith said quietly, stroking the noble steed's mane."You and he have been comrades for a very long time. He knows you, and he knows the difference between a great man and a cowardly one. It may have been quite the gambit, but he doesn't hold any hard feelings toward you."
"You gathered all of that from a mere neigh?" Shigure blinked in disbelief. "Truly?"
"Heehee," Lilith winked triumphantly. "There's a reason they put me in charge of the stables."
"Ooh!" Kana butted in with a teasing lilt. "Auntie just schooled you, mister teenage pegasus whisperer!"
"Please," he had half a mind to boop her on the head for that. "I highly doubt that was her intention."
"He's jealous 'cause someone else has his special talent now and does it much better than he can!" Kana whispered loudly to Lilith like the world's worst undercover informant, their gossiping eyes never leaving him even as they blatantly spun tales in his presence.
"Oh my," Lilith played along with a feigned gasp. "Is that so? Honestly, it wasn't my intention to threaten him so!"
"Just so you're both aware," Shigure said. "I'm still here."
The girls burst into laughter, and it wasn't long until Shigure was chuckling along with them.
"Thank you for taking care of Cane," Shigure bowed once the laughter subsided. "I wish I could say my rashness was at the very least supported by the knowledge of your involvement here, as well as Midori's. Alas, there was no way of me knowing at the time of the skirmish just who the Summoner was going to bring back with him. I've nothing but the devil's own luck to account for such a miracle. My sincerest apologies for burdening you before you could even so much as set your room in order."
"It was nothing, really," Lilith said. "Nothing more than standard equine routine. I'm sure the healers would have assisted even if I were absent. If anything, I should be the one apologizing for having you two sit through that little, ah, episode."
"Not at all!" Shigure protested, catching her off guard. "I was the one to dredge up the theory that led to your trauma. Gods, I should probably be apologizing for that as well. Miss Lilith, I—"
"Auntie," Kana butted in again, this time poking his chest. "You have to say auntie, big brother. Even I know that!"
He had half a mind to boop her for that too, but decided in the end to surrender to her demands with a sheepish smile.
"Aunt Lilith."
"I said auntie!"
I feel that for as 'deus ex' as she might be in some respects, Lilith never truly gets the thanks she deserves for everything she does for the player in Fates, especially in the one route where she survives (she in fact has the least amount of influence in it). Since my interpretation of the cast follows the story of that route, I decided to give her some closure here in the same way that her death scenes do in the other routes. I thought it would be unique to have the siblings in charge of this as opposed to Corrin, since they much like My Castle represent an actual tangible aspect of her contributions to the cause in the form of the Deeprealms (controversial as they may be). It's important to note that Lilith's also been unloved and lonely for most of her life, so I think it resonates really well when the fruit of one of her endeavors looks up at her, smiles, and says 'I love you, auntie!'. Going back and listening to her theme really helped me out with that segment.
The name for Shigure's pegasus is a double entendre. Cane is a corruption of 'Cain', the Altean cavalier, in the same way that Sophie's horse Avel is a corruption of 'Abel'. Corrupting Shigure's name creates 'sugar', and combining the two creates 'cane sugar'. I'm such a wordsmith, I know.
