Apparently Emmeryn became the Exalt at ten. I was going to change their ages back, but then I realized that having a two-year-old Lissa do all that she's done so far might have been too much of a stretch, so I'm retconning Emmeryn becoming the Exalt at the age of ten to the age of twelve. I didn't even mean to do it, but I'll just have to work with what I've got.
History had never been Lucina's strongest subject. As much as her mother had tried to drill it into her head when she was a child, Lucina had avoided those sessions like the plague, preferring to spend her time playing with her friends. It was a decision she had come to regret since she had never expected to come back this far and now, she wouldn't be able to tell what had changed in the timeline. She didn't know what to expect from this time.
Thankfully, marketplaces seemed to be one of the few things that stayed the same, no matter how far back she went. Exchanging gold for goods; that was all there was to it. Simple enough to persist as it was, simple enough for someone like her to understand. There was something calming about watching the townsfolk go about their simple lives. It was something she never had.
What she didn't understand was what Lissa was so excited about. It was like someone had flipped a switch, and her energy levels had shot up and hit the sky.
"What's got you so excited?" Lucina asked her.
Lissa gave her a good, long look, before she said, "I made a new friend."
"A friend?" Lucina chuckled. "Yes. Having a friend is a good thing indeed."
A friend, huh? From what Owain had said about his mother, she was a very bright and friendly woman, someone who must have had many friends in her lifetime.
"Well, I hope your friendship lasts for a long time. If you keep them close, they'll save you from trouble no matter what. Gods know how many times they've pulled me from it."
"Oh? Where are they now?"
Lucina frowned. She looked back at Chrom, who was scowling at the road like it had killed his best friend.
"They're scattered across the land. I was planning on searching for them, actually."
"Oh." Lissa looked devastated.
Lucina stopped, and knelt down beside Lissa. "What's the matter?"
"It's... we just met, and you're going to leave soon."
"I might stay for a while, as I said."
"You will?" Lissa's face brightened in an instant.
"Yes. There are some things I need to find out before I go." Lucina sent another look at Chrom. Not that he noticed, too busy burning a hole through the cobblestone. She turned back to Lissa, then she asked, "Why does it matter to you?"
"I don't want you to leave. I'll be lonely without you."
"But don't you have a friend now?"
Lissa looked her dead in the eyes. "My new friend is you."
"Me?"
To say Lucina was surprised would be an understatement. Horrified would have been a better word. The way Lissa looked at her told her it was no jest. Yet another change she'd brought upon the timeline, something she would have to fix.
"I'm not the best person to call a friend," Lucina said. "I don't think I've played any games since I was seven, so I'm not the most fun person."
"You can't be any more boring than being a princess," Lissa mumbled.
"Boring is good. Boring is safe. I never realized how nice boring was until I got older."
"It sounds like you've had a poor life. You have my sympathy," Emmeryn said, and she placed a hand on her shoulder. When Lucina looked back, Emmeryn gave her a soft smile. It was a smile she'd only heard of in stories from her father. To see it in person...
It felt nice.
"You don't need to offer me such," Lucina said, brushing the hand off her shoulder. "It can't be helped."
"That's more reason you have to stay with us," Lissa said.
Lucina sighed, and she looked to the floor. "There's nothing I would love more, believe me, but I'm afraid I can never come home."
She winced a second later, realizing her mistake the moment it left her mouth.
"Huh?"
"What I meant to say was... it's sort of a painful reminder of home. I... I'd like to avoid crossing that bridge, for now at least."
Lissa only thought about it for a second, but she bought the explanation easily enough. Chrom and Emmeryn, though, were not going to be easily convinced, if the looks she was getting from both of them were any indication.
Emmeryn frowned, and her eyes spoke of worry, but she chose to remain silent.
Chrom, on the other hand, wasn't as content to let the topic sit.
"A reminder of your home?" he said, scoffing. "And what, exactly, is the home you hail from?"
Emmeryn sent him a glare. "If Lucina does not wish to share, let it be."
"If it concerns your safety, then I'm afraid I'll have to insist. You don't seem to understand what it's like to be a leader."
"You are many things, Chrom, but what do you know about leadership?" Emmeryn sighed.
"More than you. Father taught me everything he knew about how to lead. I was with him when those Plegian dogs killed him and mom. Where were you?"
Emmeryn stopped. It took Lucina a second to realize that she'd gone strangely quiet as well. She looked back, and she saw an emotion that could only be described as complex flash across her face.
"Chrom. I know you were close to our father. You weren't the only one who loved him. I know you believe me to hate him, for all I've done to repeal his policies, but I did love him. I still do."
Chrom's face twisted in anger, and he whirled to face Emmeryn. "His policies are his legacy! How can you say you love him when all you want to do is wipe away all that we have left of him?"
"What kind of a legacy are laws that repress the people of Ylisse and force them into senseless bloodshed?" Emmeryn took a breath, her shoulders shaking. "His death shook all of us, but I couldn't let my love for him blind me to the kind of ruler he was. He kind father he may have been, but to the people, he was a ruler who threw thousands to the spears of Plegia without so much as a second glance."
"Well, you've done a good job so far to make them forget," Chrom said, shooting a glance around them.
Lucina followed her gaze, and she found it met with angry looks all around the street. It couldn't have been for anything she had done. So then why...
Lucina glanced back at Emmeryn, whose head seemed to be shrinking further into her robe with each passing second.
They're mad at her? This isn't what the past was like. In his stories about Aunt Emmeryn, he said she was loved by her people. Lucina frowned. Perhaps he simply forgot. Yes, that must be it. I can't even remember what it was I last ate in the future, so maybe it was like that.
She was snapped out of her thoughts by a cry.
"Help! They're getting away!"
Lucina barely had time to blink before a haggard man brushed past her, a trail of gold coins spilling out from a pouch on his side. As he vanished into the crowd, two soldiers burst out in front of her, hot on the thief's trail. They yelled for the crowd to get out of the way, but the crowd, either too absorbed in their lives to care, or out of spite from the way their glares shifted from Emmeryn to the soldiers, barely shuffled to the side by a few inches.
"What should we do?" Lissa said as the soldiers, already tired of waiting for the people to move, pushed through the shoppers. A loud series of protests rose from the crowd, and with each shout, Chrom's face twisted further into a scowl.
"I know what father would do," he said, firm resolve hardening his voice.
"Chrom, wait!" Emmeryn said.
But Chrom wouldn't listen, and he drew the steel sword from the scabbard at his side, charing in after the soldiers. Glancing between her brother's disappearing form, and Lucina and Lissa, Emmeryn's face fell into despair.
"Take care of Lissa," she said to Lucina.
Then she gave one last look at Lissa, before running after her brother, her cloak fluttering behind her. As Emmeryn vanished from sight, the crowd's voices started to die down. It only took a few minutes for the crowd to finally calm down, they dispersed back into their daily lives.
With all the excitement gone, Lissa turned to Lucina, her smile a picture of childish innocence.
"So, what now?" she said.
What now? Lucina wasn't exactly sure, and the long stare Lissa was giving wasn't helping. Lucina glanced around, letting her gaze roam over the various shops and stalls at the side of the road, until her eyes finally landed on a blacksmith sign hanging over a door.
She glanced back at the sword at her hip. It had seen her through many battles, but it was heavily worn since there were no blacksmiths around to repair it. The wear and tear of battle normally wouldn't be a problem if she still had Falchion, but she'd given it to her brother before they'd gone back to the past. Sure, it might not have been the smartest move for her, but she wanted to make sure that her brother could protect himself should he ever run into trouble.
She'd been meaning to get a new one ever since she had returned to the past. Besides, her current sword was smeared with the remains of all the Risen she'd killed. Since Risen weren't a thing yet, the strange purple markings on her sword might raise questions from anyone who saw her using it.
"Let's get out of the crowd, first," Lucina said, taking Lissa's hand.
"Okay!"
Lissa didn't argue as Lucina pulled her toward the blacksmith shop. The girl's complete trust reminded her of Cynthia, and for a moment, Lucina found her surrounds a little too quiet despite the chatter of the crowd around them. She shook the thought out of her head, though, and pressed onward.
Soon, she told herself. It won't be long. I'll search for them as soon as I've got this all sorted out.
So, you might be wondering where the other two chapters went. Well, I was in the middle of writing Chapter 4 when I realized; hey, when's the stuff going to get good? We've spent three whole chapters hanging around Castle Ylisse, where's all the "changing the future" Lucina's supposed to get up to?
So I went back and deleted them. As you can imagine, such a revelation sort of destroyed my motivation to write, which is why this chapter is so short. Heck, most of this is what I was going to put up for Chapter 4, except with Phila swapped for Chrom, and all of the dialogue re-done.
The next chapter will be in two weeks. Hopefully by then I'll have a better idea of what I'm going to do. I'm currently working on another Fire Emblem story for my Mondays, a buddy-cop romcom featuring Robin and Sumia, but once I get done with that (which shouldn't take too long), I can start working on this weekly. So you can look forward to that.
