Leafless Orange Trees

"Roy has captured Satar."

Frederick's voice drove out the almost-silence of the garden with the force of a biting wind. The orange trees, under which last time Lucina had welcomed Ike home, trembled. Any more force, any more freezing water in their veins, and they would snap.

Lucina pulled her cape tighter, but the cold seeped through the stone bench where she sat, travelled up her spine and waged war against her body heat until she surrendered with shivering fingers.

"I suppose it was only a matter of time," she said. "And he still has the Binding Blade?"

Frederick nodded. "Despite Rath's best efforts, the operation was a failure. Virion's wounds are quite severe. He is not the only one either."

"Will he be…?"

"He will survive. But with burns of that degree… Cherche has accompanied him back to Persis. I would not count on either of them to rejoin us in time for the next battle."

"A battle that might reach the capital any day. I know."

Frederick moved closer, each step a crunching of snow. "I'm afraid it is happening even sooner than that. Talys has started the war. Shanna must have grown tired of waiting for our fleet and attacked Terra to force you into accepting her claim for sovereignty."

Lucina shook her head. "That's Roy's doing. Shanna would have lured us into the bays of Talys where she has the home advantage rather than waste her Pegasus Knights on Terra. It's a symbolic move. Roy almost killed me in Terra, and there he will defeat me again."

"I didn't mean to suggest you should travel to Terra yourself. The people need you here."

"It doesn't matter whether I go or not. I will lose either way. Roy was only generous enough to let me choose whether I give up the capital or Altea. How many men does he have?"

"One thousand, if the reports are to be believed. But many of them are untrained farmers and citizens from the towns he has passed."

"They will fight all the harder. This is their land. Their Pherae."

Lucina cast her eyes overhead. The slender twigs swayed amidst the mercilessly cold sky. In their shade she had played catch with Frederick for the countless summer afternoons where matters of state had forced Roy into his study room. Back then, she had struggled to understand how he could devote so much time to papers and supply lines and faceless requests. Now she knew. And she wondered if the twigs above would ever bear leaves again.

The water sloshed in the nearby ponds. Fine steam clouds curled upward.

"Did you know that the palace didn't originally have orange trees?" Lucina asked. "They don't belong here, the winters are too cold. They would always whither. Eliwood, however, was hellbent on tricking nature. So he ordered the construction of these ponds, fed by steaming water that mechanical cylinders pump upward. A brilliant piece of engineering, at least if you believe the corresponding book in the library. Ten thousand gallons of hot water every day. And for what? Because Eliwood liked the taste of oranges? Or simply because he could?"

Lucina buried her head in her hands. The crown weighed heavy. "I was a fool."

"Don't say that!" Frederick said louder than necessary. "You did everything you could to follow in your father's footsteps."

"If that's true, why am I not sitting on the Altean throne? I thought that by keeping the Empire intact I could avoid further bloodshed, and that this crown would enable me to realize all the dreams of the people I care about; yours, Rath's, Cordelia's… Ike's. But I aimed too high. Rath hasn't seen the grassland of Sacae in months, Talys is still hell, and Ike lies in a coma from which he might never awaken. Every time I send someone into battle, they come back wounded. Or they don't come back at all. But I push them across the chessboard anyway. Heir to Marth, Naga's champion, queen of the Pheraen Empire…" Lucina choked, but she couldn't imprison the tears any longer. "I'm such a fool."

And finally she cried. She cried for herself and for Ike, Gregor, Soren, Cordelia, all the people she had disappointed, the dreams she had failed, and the love she had squandered, and hot tears splashed into her lap to make up for the months she had tucked them inside.

Snow crunched, but Lucina could not place the sound until Frederick sat down and wrapped his arms around her.

Wordlessly she cried, and wordlessly he held her.

In the far distance, Roy rolled the drums of war.

Frederick stayed by Lucina's side, and when the tears had run dry, he gave her a look of endless support, the look first worn when she had dragged him across the palace on her child legs to explore the sandstone secrets.

"You accomplished so many good things," he said. "The people of Altea would have still lived in fear if it weren't for you. Consider all the lives you saved when you put an end to Roy's reign."

"But it cost so many too…"

"Lucina, you mustn't believe for a second that it was for nothing. Please, I cannot bear to see you broken like this. I… I lack the means to build you back up, as you said."

Lucina rested her head against Frederick's shoulder. "It was dumb of me to say that. Forget it. I need you now more than ever."

"I have never stopped believing in the future you will create for Archanea. And until my last breath, I will fight for you."

"You know I hate it when you talk about dying for my sake, old man."

"I apologize."

Lucina laughed, and it almost sounded mirthful. "Always the man of apologies. But really, I'm the one who needs to apologize. To you, to Cordelia, and to the entire Empire while we're at it. Roy has returned to resume his oppression of Altea because I failed to kill him. His mere existence invites the people of Pherae to fight against one another. Because I failed to kill him. Even Tiki, the Voice of the very goddess I supposedly follow, wanted me to finish him. But I didn't have it in me to end his tyranny for good."

"It was an act of mercy. Not weakness."

"And now Archanea pays the price for my mercy. Ike and all the others with whom he rode to Thria have paid already. Virion pays as we speak. How long before you will?"

"If that time comes, I will pay the price gladly."

"I don't want anyone else to pay, damn it!" Lucina shoved Frederick, but his broad shoulders barely nudged. "I've prided myself on a non-killing policy, to live in harmony with my surroundings as the second credo said. But in reality, I only shifted the burden of murder onto someone else. We never admitted it in front of the other, but I know Ike has acted as my executioner with all these reluctant Pheraen nobles. And now I have turned Cordelia into a murderer too."

"She has killed before. Quite willingly if I remember the soldier in the depths of Persis' prison correctly."

"But not a defenseless man like Marcus. You heard what she said: she did it for me. That is the monstrosity I inspire in my followers."

"Cordelia was out of her mind because of Ike. You should not take her words to heart."

"You're telling me not to take the truth to heart. Frederick, if I asked you now, would you ride out and kill Roy for me? Would you bury a knife into Cordelia's back because I cannot forgive what she did to Marcus?"

Frederick shifted on the bench, and his eyes searched the bare orange trees for a harmless answer that did not exist. "If either crime ensures you will live…"

"And in the same breath, you would betray your own ideals. To avoid senseless killing was always your favorite part of the knight code. That and unconditional loyalty, I suppose." Lucina brushed a half-frozen tear from Frederick's breastplate. Why was he always the one to watch her cry? Why could she not be strong for him once? "I can't go on like this."

"Because Cordelia yelled at you?"

"No, because she's right. I cannot win against Roy if I cling to naïve ideals. I knew the truth after he set fire to the shrine in Terra, and yet I refused to bend to it, again and again, even though nothing has changed since. I can't keep Roy and a free Altea. Not both."

"You are not seriously considering to kill him!"

Lucina gave him a hollow smile.

"You would hate yourself!" Frederick said. "This cannot be what Naga wants you to do. Even Cordelia does not truly want you to destroy yourself by becoming a murderer. At least let me carry this burden for you."

"Forget it. I want the hospital bed next to Ike's to remain empty. Even if I had the guarantee that it would work, I could not ask this of you. Never. Roy is the one who made you a knight, and we both know what that means."

Frederick averted his gaze to his armored boots. "I would be willing to go against the knight code for this."

"I know. But you won't have to."

"Then what is it you plan to do?"

Lucina rose from the bench. She could not bear to look at Frederick anymore; he would reject her decision, but she did not know another way out, trapped behind sandstone walls and a circle of fire that drew ever closer until it would devour her and everyone she held dear.

"The fastest way to end the conflict is to kill Roy," Lucina said. "But look at my hands. They're already shaking. I can't ask any of you to face him either. So, I will adopt one last lesson from him. I've followed his path too far already, what's one more horrible decision in the grand scheme of things?"

The orange trees' branches trembled as though they feared Lucina's words before she even dared to voice them. The eyes on her watched, and the walls around the garden leaned in to listen, and perhaps they would rejoice to see her fall so far.

"I will hire the Black Fang."


Notes: After a longer chapter, here a short chapter to change things up. I hope you don't find the length too disappointing. When Lucina approaches a certain assassin in the next chapter, it will hopefully make up for this shorter update. Originally this scene was packaged into the last chapter with Roy, but that one became rather long, and the tone differences were a bit too jarring, I think. But yeah, I'm always glad for any thoughts you might have, comments and follows give me life.