"Are you sure you don't want to take her with you?" Chrom pleaded to his wife as she got ready to leave.
"I'm sure, Chrom. Lucina and I agreed to a mother/daughter day, not a mother/daughter/granddaughter day."
"But why does she even need a babysitter?" Chrom argued back to which Sumia simply shot him a pointed look, "Okay, point. Are you sure Robin can't do it?"
"No, dear," Sumia answered as she got her purse, "He's meeting with the Plegian delegation to get their update on the reconstruction efforts." She turned just as she was about to leave, "It will not kill you to spend one day with your granddaughter."
"You have met Morgan, right?"
"You have been running from this at almost every turn since we found her. It is time you man up and accept you are a grandpa."
"I'm not even twenty-five yet."
"Neither am I, now, get out there, and have a wonderful day with your precious granddaughter."
"This is all Robin's fault," Chrom grumbled as he left the room shortly after his wife only to come face to face with the subject of a few nightmares of his.
"Heya, Gramps!" Morgan exclaimed happily while Chrom groaned.
"We've been over this, I prefer just Chrom."
"Ah, but that's not as fun."
"I know, but it's less traumatizing," Chrom sighed, "So…what do you want to do?"
"Hmm," Morgan gave it some serious thought, "I don't know. What do you normally do with mother?"
"Lucina? We usually spar when we get the time together."
"Is that all you do?" Morgan asked incredulously.
"Well, we talk and…bond I guess," Chrom replied defensively prompting Morgan to shrug her shoulders.
"Good enough for me. Wanna go a few rounds, old man?"
Chrom immediately thought back to the last time he had sparred with Morgan. They had just finished repairs, "On second thought, maybe we should try something else."
"Afraid for your feeble old bones?"
"More like afraid for my castle," Chrom muttered, "Let's try something else. Oh, I know. Lucy loves walking through the Hall of Exalts."
"The what now?" Morgan tilted her head in confusion.
"You…really don't know?" Chrom narrowed his eyes, "I would have assumed you'd love a place like that."
"It's true I like to explore, but I've spent most of my exploration time in the creepy West Wing. Did you know we have rusty suits of armor? I also found this nifty lance! Oh, and a sword with almost…teeth on it. Real cool stuff."
"I'm…sure it is," Chrom shrugged it off, "So do you want to go or not? Could learn some stuff about your ancestors."
"Neat! Lead the way, Gramps," Chrom groaned, but he kept his word and led Morgan to the chamber. It was admittedly pretty out of the way…and locked, but then again, so was the West Wing and that did not seem to deter her at all. All the same, Morgan was always happy to see new places.
This one did not disappoint. Morgan quickly ran ahead in awe of the statues adorning the sides of the large hall. The whole room was illuminated from a stained glass skylight depicting a man holding a sword aloft with the sun at his back. Said man was also depicted at the back of the room as well.
"Wow," Morgan turned back to her grandfather, "Who are they?"
"Former Exalts for the most part, though some predate the title," Chrom slowly made up the difference between them, "Hundreds of years of our ancestors, all here."
Morgan looked at the most recent statue recognizing her great aunt, but the one across from her confused the bluenette, "Is that your father?"
"It is," Chrom replied with a hard expression that proved oddly hard to read despite the fact that he was normally an open book.
"But I thought he was a horrible Exalt. Why does he have a statue?"
"I once asked a very similar question," Chrom chuckled, "It's because this isn't just a place of honor."
"It's not?" Morgan tilted her head, "Are you sure? Have you seen that skylight?"
"I know, but this is also a place of remembrance. If we ignore the bad, then we risk forgetting it. If we forget it, then we are liable to repeat the mistakes they made. So, we keep these statues here, not only of the good, but of the bad. To remind us that we are not perfect, and not to think ourselves above such folly. To remind us of the failures of the past so that we can have greater success in the future."
"Wow…that's deep. Where'd you get it?"
Chrom could not resist a laugh, "Emmeryn. She learned a lot from our father even if it was how not to behave. So, this hall stands as a reminder not only of the rulers and their actions, but also that you can be an example…or a warning."
"Or completely unremarkable in pretty much any way," Morgan commented looking at all the statues that she had no idea who they were.
"That's a bit harsh," Chrom defended his lineage, "Sometimes an uneventful reign is a good thing."
"Sure, but I hope the most interesting thing historians have to write about me isn't something like having eleven toes," Morgan muttered reading one of the plaques adorning the pedestals of the statues.
"Oh, believe me, they'll be able to write books about you."
"They better," Morgan huffed as she looked around, "So where's your statue?"
"Not made yet. I only officially became Exalt a few months ago, and I keep putting off modeling for the thing."
"Well, better hurry before you lose your heroic physique. Wouldn't want to be remembered as some flabby layabout."
"I don't think I have to worry about that anytime soon," Even as he said that he checked to see if he was gaining a bit of a gut.
"So, is that Marth all the way at the end?"
"Yes," Chrom led her over, "He's also on the stained glass mural."
"Huh," Morgan squinted, "Could have sworn they'd depict him with Falchion."
"They did," Chrom answered and Morgan repeatedly looked between the sword on her grandfather's hip and the one depicted on the statue.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, it's received some work over the years, but the blade, at its core, is the same."
"Huh, neat."
"You can use it, can't you?" Chrom asked with folded arms. He thought Lucina had mentioned it, but it had been a while ago back when he was still somewhat reeling from having a granddaughter.
"Falchion?" Morgan looked over her shoulder, "Yeah. Mom had me try it out. Seems I can. Not sure why though."
"Do not sell yourself short. Sure, you're eccentric, but you're strong. The blood of your mother flows strong in your veins even if you don't always see it."
Morgan's face lit up, "Are you…saying you're proud to have me as a granddaughter?"
"Not sure how you derived that from my statement, but, sure. I'm proud to have a gremlin like you as my granddaughter."
"Daw," Morgan dove in for a spine cracking hug, "I'm glad you're my grandpa too. Definitely my favorite grandpa. Granted my other one was a genocidal maniac, but I'm sure you'd rank highly even if he wasn't."
"Gee, thanks," Chrom separated from his excitable granddaughter, "Now let's get you back home."
"Home? It's only been like an hour."
Chrom groaned.
A/N: Thanks to Falchion1984 for giving me this idea and helping out.
