Standing Between the Light and Dark
Chapter One: The Days That Followed
Athos stood before the terror at the Dragon's Gate, speaking words of ancient power. The earth rumbled and flames roared up all around the army that had gathered to the three Lycian lords. This was the final moment, where all their travels had led them, and now the fate of Lycia and all the human world would be decided.
Nino stood in the midst of it all, feeling more than ever like a little girl in an adventure far too real. Even her worst nightmares of what life in the Black Fang could be like were nothing compared to this. It was hard enough to remember to breathe.
"Look out!" Rebecca shouted, too late to help. But Pent heard the shout, saw what Nino had not, and leapt in the path of spellcasting. A dark druid-morph on a distant pillar chanted in a wordless howl, but the mage-general was strong enough to resist even Eclipse.
"Pent!" Louise shouted as the shadows broke against him.
"He'll be all right," Rebecca said confidently. "Here." Louise caught the thrown longbow, and the two snipers returned fire on the druid with satisfying accuracy.
"Stay at the back," Guy said darkly. "Oh, yes, wonderful plan. Matthew, how do you get me into these things?"
"Look at it this way," the thief replied as a wall of generals marched on them. "Your choices are to be here right now, or to have died months ago when we beat the stuffing out of your old army."
"Funny," Raven remarked. "I don't even have revenge to regret losing, now. But I'd still rather not die." He looked at the others. "So, who's been carrying an armorslayer and just didn't mention it until now? Has to be someone, right?"
The generals unlocked their tree-thick lances from their armor. It was like watching a mountain step into an arena fight. Guy braced himself, trying to remember some alternative Zen techniques for not getting hit, because somehow being one with the lance sounded exactly like what he wanted to avoid.
Then pounding hoofbeats broke his concentration and he decided to go with the famous method of defending by not being at the dangerous place. In other words, he sprinted to the side of the chasm bridge just in time to keep from becoming road material.
Paladins crashed into the generals like waves striking cliffs walls- except that these were halberd-wielding waves, and they were making short work of their armored foes. "Never fear, fair Priscilla!" Sain shouted over the sounds of battle. "Your brother is safe! Are you watching?"
A bolt of Thunder turned the lance hurtling toward Sain's back into a stream of molten silver on the stone. "Yes," the Valkyrie replied, a little bit smugly. "Even when you aren't."
"Strange girl," Sain murmured with feeling, nearly hypnotised.
"Back to work!" Raven snapped from behind the paladin. He glared at the horse beneath him again. "I hate having to be rescued." He stabbed the closest enemy with his silver sword to let off his feelings.
"Forblaze!" Athos roared again, hurling the power of earth and fire at the snarling dragon. His magic assaulted it terribly, but the dragon shook off its beatings and counterattacked with a vengeance. The flametongue was more raw power than even an archsage could deflect, and he staggered under the blow. Power flashed from Serra and Renault's Physic staves, flying to heal Athos, but he couldn't stand for much longer against a fire dragon.
Its claw lashed out- clang -and was intercepted. The mighty blade Armads held against even draconian muscle. "Eliwood, now! We can't hold out much longer!" Hector shouted.
A fireball flew- whip, slice -and was cloven by the only warrior fast enough to wield a sword against flames. The Sol Katti glowed red in Lyn's hand. "This is it, Eliwood!"
The Knight Lord looked up from his place in the battle. Fighting everywhere, chaos, smoke, death… couldn't it end… somehow… All he wanted was to rest, to stop fighting, to stop everything…
Music played in the midst of his weariness, a simple but mighty melody that reminded him of all he needed to know. Lights flashed like a broken rainbow as Nils' flute song gave him strength. Usually it ended quickly, but this time the dragonboy played on.
Nino stepped out from Pent's protection, as if called by the moment of destiny. "Nino!" barked a familiar voice, and she spun to see Jaffar locked in combat with a swordmaster-morph. "Run." That was all he said, and then the world was red and black and the grey of steel and the dark of killing and the dragon breathed out whoomph and for one brief moment Durandal was truly the Blazing Sword…
Nino did not jolt awake. The memory-dream slid into oblivion and she opened her eyes for real, like a fallen warrior returning to life. Darkness was still all around her, but instead of the hopeless black of the Dragon's Gate, this was the soothing blue of night that would soon turn to morning.
She reached out and grabbed the berry-necklace off her side table. Rebecca had shown her how to make them, and the feel of it reminded her of the days when she had been surrounded by friends who would have died for her.
And almost had, she remembered. Even the necklace reminded her of those moments in the final battle when Rebecca had to protect Pent because the sage had to save her, and the time Fiora had swooped through the castle halls to snatch her from a general's grasp, and even when Lyn had first found her in Bern, cutting down the monk that Nino had been battling- and losing to.
She picked a berry off the necklace and ate it. They were dry now, but twice as sweet as they had been the day they were picked. The young mage would get no more sleep tonight.
"You're distracted," Erk remarked the next morning. When Nino didn't even blink, Erk realised how right he was. She sat at her desk, chin resting in her hands, staring blankly at the tome before her. "Basically, if we can just find enough rabbits, it should be entirely possible for you to cast Excalibur without bothering to speak a single word, because of the inverse philotic effect, as long as tomorrow's Tuesday." Nino flipped a page, but her eyes didn't scan across it to read the words or even study the pictures.
"What are you talking about?" asked Canas, looking up from his book across the library.
"Also, I'm planning a day trip to the stars this weekend, and you might be able to come along, but we'll have to make sure you don't offend the Queen of the Faery People, so you'll need to colour your hair pink and only wear robes made from dandelion leaves."
"It's not working," the dark mage observed.
Erk coughed. "Jaffar."
"What?" asked Nino, head jerking up and eyes instantly alert.
"Mm-hm," Canas murmured, and went back to reading.
"…Oh," Nino realised. "Sorry. I… didn't sleep well last night."
"But you aren't going to tell us why," Erk predicted.
"Or what you were dreaming about," Canas added, still reading.
"You are, in fact, going to be vague on whether or not you were even dreaming," Erk continued.
"Just like last time," Canas finished.
"…I didn't know it was that obvious," Nino mumbled, embarrassed.
"It isn't," the sage assured her.
"We're smart," the druid explained.
"But not geniuses," Erk mused. After a second's silence, he looked over at Canas, who shrugged and dove back into the pages. The sage sighed. He thought everything would get to be so much simpler once he had the power of a Guiding Ring. Well, obviously it would stay complicated until the dragon business was finished, but then a nice life teaching magically talented students in Etruria, that would be a pleasant, useful, and above all calm job.
"I'll try to pay attention, really," Nino assured her mentor, seeing his grim expression.
"No," Erk decided, "we've had enough book learning for a while. Though it's against my better judgment, I think we'll spend today outside."
"You're really going to have to get over this fear of the sun, Erk," said Canas.
"It's not the sun. It's the thought that at any moment I could turn around and a certain pink-haired bishop will be there ready to drag me into another spirit-forsaken adventure," Erk replied. He looked around. "Where's Nino?"
"She left roundabout the word 'sun'," Canas informed him. With another sigh, Erk bounded out of the library, jogging to catch up with his energetic apprentice. Canas smiled, and then returned to trying to find where he had left off in the last paragraph-long word.
"I don't have to learn anything, do I?" asked Nino, almost dancing in the bright sunshine and wind-ruffled long grass. She turned an anguished look on Erk, who was reminded cringingly of Serra.
"Yes, you do," he answered firmly. "But we'll be practical about it. If you want to do any travelling to broaden your perspectives as a mage, you'll need to know how to live off the land." Erk produced a few thin books from his robes, and removed a single page. "These are some of the most useful plants that grow in these parts. It couldn't hurt to do a little reading, so just find them and bring them back to me. And take this."
Nino, who was already working hard on the descriptions of the plants, caught the second book almost reflexively. "Oh, why does everything have to be scholarly…" she began, and then noticed the yellow bolt emblazoned on the book's cover. Thunder. "Thanks, Erk!"
Watching her go, Erk picked a comfortable section of hill and started making notes on the dragonflies that darted about in the warm winds.
"Ma-ndr-ag-ora," Nino read as quickly as she could. "Di-sting…ing… inguish-able…"
In full, the entry read: Mandragora. Distinguishable by its serrated leaf clusters and the corpses of the unwary scattered about locations where they flourish. Ensure roots have been carefully beaten to death with a heavy bludgeoning weapon before removing completely from ground. In cases where maximum potency is necessary, stun instead with small electrical charge or by coating leaves with juices from hot chili. Will cure nearly any affliction humans and dragons are capable of having (except petrifaction by mandragora cry) if properly brewed. Recommended precautions: do not live in a country where mandragoras grow.
"Wow," Nino muttered, because if she was anything, she was the kind of person to talk to herself. "Erk must really trust in my abilities to send me looking for this!"
Hours later, Nino was still roaming the hills, finding and gathering from Erk's list. She never did find any mandragora, which was probably just as well, because it would have made things even more complicated in the Reglay forest.
The sun was still high in the sky when the mage started into the trees, on the hunt for a nine-segmented bluish-petalled flower that Erk's notes called 'remember-me-usually's. It had never occurred to her that there could be danger in the land around Castle Reglay. A lot of things never occurred to Nino, but she survived anyway. This would be one of the more difficult times.
Deep in the forest, when the intertwining branches formed a sun-blocking canopy that made afternoon look more like twilight, Nino found trouble for perhaps the sixty-eighth time in her life. For a while now she had been edging towards a fire up ahead, trying to see who had set up camp. Dangerous or not, some of the folks in the woods were here for the seclusion, and Nino knew very well that she obliterated seclusion like a cannon disturbs silence.
Then she caught sight of a familiar figure, and all worries fled. Possibly because they could see what she was walking into.
"Uncle Legault!" Nino called loudly, and the former Black Fang thief looked up to see her, something like terror on his face. Then she realised that he hadn't been resting against a tree, he had been using it as cover… and those were some large and unfriendly-looking warriors by the fire.
They saw her too. "Look who's decided to stop by and make us comfy, Ivan," said one of the men. They were huge. Their weapons were bigger.
"Well what are the chances, Garet?" asked the other. Both stood, smirking in a way that Nino knew couldn't possibly mean anything good. Garet was short, but still taller than Nino, and about as broad across the shoulders as a horse. Ivan was simply a giant in every sense of the word.
"Don't know," said Garet. "But things are looking up now that we've got some company."
Nino started to step backwards, slowly and carefully. Their hands flew to axe handles. This was getting worse at an incredible speed. With a sudden rush of terror, Nino noticed that there was no thief by the tree. She must have imagined him out of shadows and brush.
"I'm… I wasn't… didn't mean to disturb you," Nino explained. "I may be a little bit lost…"
"Good," said Ivan.
"Lost can explain so much," Garet agreed. "Keeps people from asking too many questions."
"I really don't think I've got anything you want…" Nino insisted. The warriors looked at each other like she had suggested they were sheep on unicycles.
A blue shadow dropped from the canopy between Nino and the advancing warriors. "Hello there. Remember me?"
"It's him!" Garet growled.
"We remember you, all right, Legault," Ivan snarled. "But those days are over."
"Oh, please," said Legault. "Those days never existed. But I'm still here to talk about second chances."
"Good," said Ivan.
"We're agreeable when it comes to second chances," Garet replied. Everything about him, including his steel axe, leered. "Push off, windy, leave the girl here, and we'll let you go free."
Legault sighed. Then, after a moment's consideration, he blurred. Daggers flashed in his hands and Garet staggered back, flailing ineffectively with his axe. As he fell, and Ivan started the backswing on a devastating sweep that never got any further. Legault leapt and spun in the air, the triple-gashing attack that had given him his name.
"Hurricane," he told the dead warrior, rather morosely. "Not 'windy'. Now what are you doing here, Nino?"
"Thank you!" she yelped, hugging the thief, who pulled back reflexively from the strangely affectionate gesture. Thieves are not an emotional sort. "That was just like the old days, Uncle Legault!"
"Too much," he agreed, relaxing a little. "They were former Black Fang, just like me. Like you too, I suppose. And not the first ones I've killed. I'm starting to think there's no place for me now that the Fang is gone completely."
"Oh, stop it," said Nino, almost bubbly again. "Anyway, I'm supposed to be here, I live in Castle Reglay now. What are you doing here?"
"Reckoning," Legault replied grimly. "But that's always the same. This time, I'm here to see you, so it's a good thing I got here before you did."
"For me? I knew you'd come back, Uncle Legault."
"You remember I'm not your uncle in any way at all, right? Never mind, there's more important business."
"Business?" Nino frowned. "What kind of business are you talking about? …You're not taking contracts, are you? The Black Fang is gone."
"Hah!" Legault actually laughed. "You don't need to tell me that, Nino. I mean unfinished business. An interest that I have in a couple of old friends, and since one of them is you, you've got an interest, too."
"So tell me already!" Nino pleaded, still overjoyed at seeing an old friend again. But Legault's next words calmed her, made her serious, even sad, even scared.
"I may know where Jaffar is."
Legault cringed at the sudden hope that appeared on Nino's face. He had phrased that badly.
"You mean we could find him and bring him back?! Oh, thank you Unc-"
"Hold up, kid," said Legault, warding her away from squeezing the air out of him again. "That's not quite right. I don't actually know, but I've been hearing things. Let's go back to this Castle of yours, I've been travelling cross-country for weeks. And it wouldn't hurt to have the Lord Sage of Etruria hearing this, too."
[Author's Notes] First foray into Fire Emblem fanfiction here, and it's going to be an interesting trip. As hinted at by the title and the characters so far, the only people featured in here (excluding Erk and Louise, but they're not central) are going to be the ones filled with conflict, walking the line of good and evil. (Don't worry, it won't be philosophical unless you look really hard.)