As a child, stories had always fascinated her. Although hazy, she still had a library of memories of just sitting on her father's lap, listening to his stories. From stories about her mother to stories about his younger days, he had spent hours recounting things for her and her brother. But out of all of them, her favorite ones were the ones about war.
He'd dazzled her with tales of heroics and brushes with death. His stories about war, they excited her. She'd heard them so many times, she could recount the Plegia-Ylisse war off the top of her head. She knew exactly what happened, who died, and what events she needed to prevent to stop the disaster that was to come.
And now all that could come undone; all her knowledge of the future could be reduced to useless fodder because of her.
Who knows how many things I've just messed up, she thought as she slipped through the empty halls under the unmoving gaze of the moon. If Aunt Lissa doesn't save Robin in Southtown, does that mean Gangrel will win the war? Or if she doesn't save Uncle Ricken at the Border Pass, will Aunt Cordelia never get to kill Yen'fay?
She needed to wait until the Plegia-Ylisse war to make her move. Any earlier change in the timeline could drastically change the events that would lead to the Fell Dragon's resurrection, and she'd know no more than anyone else.
The best thing she could do was to disappear. If she left now, there was still a chance that Lissa would revert to normal. She'd turned to the healing arts because of Emmeryn; by the time the Plegia-Ylisse war came around, Lucina would be nothing more than a distant memory. As much as it pained her to leave her father to his grief, it was something that had to be done.
He's going to be fine, she told herself, turning a corner into another hallway down the winding maze that was Castle Ylisse. He still has his sisters to help him. You don't need to be there for him; you just need to make sure he lives.
To anyone unfamiliar with the castle's layout, it could take a very long time for them to find the exit. But Lucina had spent more than half of her life within these walls. Houses came and went, but castles stayed the same. She knew the exit to be just around the corner, and as long as she didn't run into anyone, she would be able to leave before anyone noticed she was gone.
As luck would have it, when she rounded the last corner, someone was standing in the middle of the hall.
Her blue eyes met brown. She froze, and her hand fell to the steel sword at her side. She almost drew it when she heard something hit the ground, but all she found in the carpet was the remnants of a cookie.
Chocolate brown hair and eyes. Angular face. Straight jaw, hanging open.
The name slipped out of her before she could stop herself. "Frederick?"
He was a lot smaller than he was in the future, but there was no mistaking his face. There was no mistaking how his eyes narrowed either.
"How do you know my name?" he said.
Lucina winced. "Lucky guess?"
Frederick's frown deepened. She should have known Frederick the Wary wouldn't buy an excuse like that.
"Are you here to harm the Exalt?" he said.
A fight would alert the guards of her presence, and if they found her fighting Frederick, of all people, she was sure to be put under suspicion. She had to diffuse this, and fast.
"I'm not here to hurt the Exalt," she said, bringing her hand off her sword and raising it to show she was unarmed. "I was just leaving, actually."
"So are you a thief?" He brought his hand up to his side, and that's when Lucina noticed the wooden training sword strapped to his side.
Lucina blinked. "I'm sorry?"
"Mother tells me that if a stranger is entering a castle, they're an assassin, and if they are leaving the castle, they're a thief."
The answer surprised her at first, until she remembered this was Frederick she was talking about.
Stepping forward, she said, "I'm not here to steal anything or hurt anyone."
Immediately she found a wooden blade pressed to her throat. Frederick, at least this one, couldn't have been older than ten, yet he showed no hesitation as he held the weapon up to her.
"Take one step closer and I'll be forced to fight you," he said.
"Well, I don't want to fight you. If you'll just–"
Dull footsteps rang out from somewhere behind her. Someone was coming, and from the determined look in Frederick's eyes, he wasn't going to let her go anytime soon.
Panic rose in her throat, and in her desperation, she decided to forego talking altogether and shoved him down.
The moment he hit the floor, she broke into a run. He called for her to stop, but she ignored him, keeping her eyes glued on the exit door. It grew closer with her every step, the brass knob glimmering in the dim torchlight. Lucina extended her hand to grab it.
Then she saw movement in the corner of her eye. She spun around, holding up her arm to block the incoming strike. Pain shot up her arm as a wooden blade struck her. Acting on instinct, she returned the blow, and she ended up hitting Frederick across the face.
The boy crashed into the wall behind him, before he slumped down, groaning in pain. A jolt of shock went through Lucina. She stepped forward to help him up. Down the hall, a woman stepped into view, casting a long shadow down the hall. Lucina looked between the newcomer. Then Frederick. Then the door.
She went for the door. The floor shook, and footsteps echoed behind her. She didn't dare look back, and in seconds she was already out the door.
The door slammed shut behind her. She leaned up against the door in an instant, taking a deep breath as the sound of her heartbeat pounded in her ears.
As she stopped to breathe, Lucina took a moment to look around her. Just as she had expected, she found herself at the castle's courtyard. The moonlight above her gave the cobblestone floor a silver sheen, and the night sky loomed up in the sky above. Aside from the odd servant milling about and the two merchant wagons in the corner, the courtyard was empty. And to her left, she could see the castle gates. She was almost there.
The only problem was that the gates were closed.
Behind her, she could hear muffled voices. They sounded angry. She had to think of something fast.
The merchant wagons were the obvious solution, and it might be the first place they'd look. As it stood, though, it was the only solution.
Without making a sound, she crept over to the merchant wagons. She looked around, just to make sure no one was watching, before she pulled up the tarp on the second wagon and jumped inside.
Almost as soon as she had gone under the tarp, she heard the door burst open.
"Alright ladies," someone said. Their captain, Lucina assumed. "I want you to look around every rock and under any pillar. That child-punching scoundrel must be found, she must be caught, and she must pay for what she's done."
A small chorus of "Yes ma'am!" followed. Through the tarp, Lucina could see several dark shapes emerge into the light. They fanned out, scouring the courtyard for her.
As she watched, one of the dark shapes stopped. She didn't miss it, and her eyes snapped onto it. Then it started to approach her. Lucina's eyes widened, and her heart jumped.
How had they found her? Had someone been watching her after all? Was her breathing too loud? Her hands clamped over her mouth, but the dark shape still grew larger and larger. Any second, someone would pull back the tarp, and she would be caught.
Then it passed her.
She slumped back in relief.
As she pressed a hand to her chest, and her heart calmed down, a faint memory struck her; she had hidden from the guards all the time when she was a child. It was a game she and the other children had played all the time, mostly under the leadership of Morgan. Never had she imagined that she would get to hide from the castle guards again, and yet here she was. She would have laughed if it didn't mean the end for her, so she settled for a grin instead.
Then she turned around and came face to face with a little girl, a teddy bear clutched to her chest.
The girl opened her mouth. Lucina's hand was faster. The girl looked down at the hand over her mouth, surprised. In the stunned silence that followed, Lucina gave the girl a quick look.
The red ponytail was a dead giveaway. The merchant wagon only made it more obvious.
This was an Anna. Whether this was the one who had served with the Shepherds, she didn't know, but it was impossible to tell them apart anyway. The important thing was, she knew how to keep her quiet.
Lucina fished a coin out from her pocket and showed it to the girl. As she pulled her hand off the girl's mouth, she held a finger to her own lips. The Anna glanced at the coin. Then she glanced at Lucina. She nodded, and Lucina pressed the coin into her hands.
Beneath her, the wagon shook. The clicking of wheels let her know that the wagon had started to move. That was good. That meant she was clear.
"Wait."
Then again, maybe she spoke too soon.
Lucina immediately recognized the speaker as the leader. Her muscles tensed, and her hands clenched into fists.
"What is it? Need another lance already?" she heard the merchant say. Even in the past, they still sounded the same.
There was a pause. Then, footsteps. Getting closer and closer. A dark figure blotted out the moon, stood right above her.
"Oh. Yes. I almost forgot!" the leader said.
"Forgot what? You didn't leave your kid in my wagon, did you?"
"Of course not. I simply forgot to wish you a safe trip. So... have a safe trip, citizen."
"Oh. Thanks a bunch!"
The dark slipped past Lucina. Only when it was completely out of sight did she breathe a sigh of relief. The wagon started again, and this time, no one stopped it.
In the distance, she heard the gates open. The shadow of the castle walls passed overhead, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come. She had escaped.
Lucina peeked out the tarp, just in time to see Castle Ylisse start to shrink in the distance. As she watched it grow smaller, a sentimental pang strummed her heart.
I'll be back for you, father.
She closed the tarp and turned back around. As she settled into the wagon, she found the girl still watching her. There was no malicious intent she could see, just curiosity. But why?
"What do you want?" Lucina mumbled.
The Anna swept her gaze over Lucina. She bit her lip. "Are you a hero?" she asked after a minute.
"A hero?"
"Yeah. You wanted to hide from those guards. So are you a hero hiding from the bad guards?"
The mind of a child was a mysterious thing. "Where did you–"
The Anna shoved a book in her face. At the top in big bold letters, it read, "Rebel Wars, by George Lucas". Lucina had never heard of it before, but from the title alone, she could guess the story's premise.
"No. I'm not a hero," Lucina said, pushing the book away.
She wanted to save her father. That was all. She didn't want the world to die, it just wasn't the highest thing on her priorities.
The girl frowned. "Then are you a bad guy?"
"What? No, I'm not a bad guy."
"Well, you're either a bad guy or a hero. You can't be both."
"I–" Lucina sighed. She guessed it couldn't be helped, though. The girl was just a child.
Pinching her nose, Lucina said, "I'm a hero."
"But you said you're not a hero."
"I forgot, okay." Lucina sighed again. She slid further down the side of the wagon, and she closed her eyes. It had been a long day. She wanted to sleep.
To her side, she heard the girl shuffle closer. She opened one eye, and she found the girl staring at her again, this time in awe.
"Can you tell me a story?" the girl said.
"A story? What, about knights and dragons?"
The girl tilted her head. "Did you really meet knights and dragons?"
"No. Of course not."
"Then no," the girl said, shaking her head.
"What do you want to hear, then?"
"True stories. I want to hear about your hero things."
Lucina winced. That was going to be a problem.
On one hand, she could tell the girl about her life in the future, but she'd already learned a lesson from telling Lissa her name. She didn't want to risk it. This meant that she'd have to come up with a story for herself.
Oh well, she thought. It's not like I can keep my identity anymore. Might as well start making a new one right now.
So, propping herself back up against the wagon's sides, she cleared her throat, and she started to talk.
"So... once upon a time, there was a girl. She was born into loving parents, and... she was a knight. But... uh... her parents hated her, so..."
So, turns out I didn't burn out, which means I was able to write this. Hooray!
This is probably my 2nd favorite chapter so far, just after the 1st one, simply because stuff actually happens here. It's been two chapters, but the story's finally moving again. Kinda excited to see where this goes. Since it's a weekly thing, that means that I can pump this stuff out more often.
Next chapter will come out Febuary 3rd.
