Lady in Waiting
By psychored1911
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem Awakening or Fire Emblem Fates
Chapter 7: Thinking Positive
A bit over two weeks ago…
"Oh no… not this again…"
Hinoka whipped her head towards the pegasus knight. "Again? You've seen this before?"
"Not exactly." Catria examined the document more closely. "But these things are really similar to things I've fought before. If they are, they don't exactly feel pain, and they are easily controlled by magic, very hard to kill…"
"What's the difference?" Hinoka asked.
"...They had weapons."
"Oh, perfect, hers have weapons." Takumi threw his hands up. "That's just great. That's something I needed to know, that these things can somehow get worse."
Azura cupped her chin. "Did you have a strategy to deal with them?"
"Other than to kill them?"
"Yes."
"...Kill them quickly?" Catria shrugged awkwardly.
"What else?"
"Uhh… Run away?"
Azura groaned in annoyance. "Catria…"
"I'm sorry! I fought something like these before, I just didn't think any idiot would make more of them!" Catria put her arms up apologetically. "Are these things made of corpses too?"
Takumi, alarmed, quickly scanned the documents again. "I don't think- Why are yours made of corpses!?'
"Don't look at me! I didn't make them! Some jerk with a bone to pick with humanity made them!" Catria panickedly explained.
Hinoka stood up, interjecting to stop the bickering conversation going on and get the group back on track. "Enough! How long do we have before they send these abominations swarming across our border?"
Azura attempted to sort the papers out. "...Maybe a few months, if these documents are all in order."
Takumi frowned. "So what? We're just gonna let these things just come in and kill us all without Nohr even sending in a single soldier?"
Hinoka shook her head. "We're heading back to Shirasagi; mother, Ryoma, and Yukimura need to know about this. Catria, gather the other three. Saizo, take these plans and get a head start on us. Find Ryoma, I don't care what the hell he's doing, this is more urgent. Kaze, you and the others start packing the rest of this up and load it into the caravan, we'll look into the rest later. I want us ready to head out to Shirasagi Castle by dawn."
"...What's all this?"
When Marth came into the room, she wasn't expecting Elise and her other friends, Selena, Odin, and Laslow, to be there, sitting in a semi-circle around a couch.
"Marth, take a seat over there." Elise ordered. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble, we're here to help you."
Marth took a step back. "...I think I should leave."
"Marth, we can do this the easy way, or the way that involves you beating up these three again." Elise told her.
Selena blinked. "Wait, that's why you called us over?! To be your meat shields?!"
"Selena, we're royal retainers. That's literally our job." Odin reminded her.
Selena looked up, internally. "Ah damn, right…"
"I'm fine," Marth lied, "I don't want to waste any more of your time-"
"Marth, do you remember how you were the night Robin… was gone?" Odin asked.
Marth stopped in her tracks, glaring bright blue daggers into her cousin. "...Choose your next words very carefully, Odin."
"We spent three weeks outside your room while you were in bed crying, vomiting, and screaming your heart out when Robin died." Odin told her.
"We were hoping to see you come out of there, you know, better…" Laslow added.
"We would have stayed outside longer if you hadn't ordered us to leave and 'have lives." Selena grimaced.
Marth couldn't stop herself, and found herself shouting, "I couldn't let you stay miserable with me. You had lives to live!"
Laslow stopped her, interjecting before she could continue. "You were both our family. For the longest time, you were the only family we've ever known."
"..."
"Look, Marth…" Selena began, clearly restraining herself from utilizing her rapier wit. "You're unwell. We didn't help you then, but we will now. We're going to help you, kicking and screaming if we have to. And we're going to start by cutting off your drink."
"No."
Selena was… understandably taken aback by Marth's near-instant shutdown. "What do you mean no?!"
"Because I don't have a problem with alcohol." Marth said bluntly, her anger suddenly subsiding into denial.
"That's what every drunkard says!" Selena countered.
Marth shrugged. "If anything, the lager is helping me. It makes me… feel better."
"That's not a good thing!" Selena spat.
Laslow attempted a different approach. "How much alcohol have you been having every day?"
"...I don't know." Marth admitted.
"That's drunkard-speak for a lot." Odin muttered.
"How about we just make it less," Elise suggested. "Not cutting you off altogether, let's just cut it down. Let's see how that works for a while."
Marth was about to refuse, but she noticed someone grabbing her hand. She turned to her right, finding that little girl, standing beside her, her eyes locking with hers. Judging how everyone else in the room was reacting, no one else could see her.
"What are you doing?"
"..." Marth tried to turn away from the girl's judging gaze, but she couldn't find it in herself to budge.
"They're trying to help you."
"..." Marth tried to voice some sort of complaint, but her lips and tongue failed her.
"Please? For me?"
"..." Marth lost the strength to deny her request.
Laslow leaned over to Odin's shoulder and whispered. "What is she staring at?"
Odin shrugged. "I dunno, but it's kinda creepy-"
"...I can agree to that." Marth nodded reluctantly as she craned her neck back to the group before her. "Is that all I'm here for?"
"We're not done." Elise sternly told her, holding in her own confusion towards Marth's bizarre behavior in favor of moving on with the session. "Lilith gave me the whole day off today. So, let's keep going. Let's start with your past…"
"I don't trust Marth." Effie muttered between forkfuls of food.
Arthur put his fork down and looked at Effie, confused at the sudden admission during what was supposed to be an ordinary meal with a friend. "Why not? She seems pretty nice… When she's sober…"
"That's just it. Half the time she's depressed and drunk and the other half she's supposedly everyone's sweetheart. How are we supposed to rely on someone who could be a coin toss between being a total wreck and a hypercompetent super soldier?" Effie asked.
"She probably has a lot on her plate, it's not nice to judge her in her first few days." Arthur suggested. "She's good at her job. She can fight better than most, her reading and writing… is a bit slow but she gets it done."
"She's assigned to work for Lady Elise; but it seems more like Lady Elise is taking care of her."
"Lady Elise is a very compassionate person, she probably cares about her new friend." Arthur offered.
"Why are you so okay with her? Aren't you the least bit suspicious?"
Arthur lowered his fork and looked her dead in the eyes. "From what I gathered, she raised Selena, Odin and Laslow, maybe even more than them, by herself. That's already a lot on her plate; she's not that much older than them. Whatever the hells happened after that made her a soldier, a fighter, a terrifying one at that. She eventually got married the love of her life and settled down, wherein I made a very horrifying assumption in my head that someone gruesomely murdered her husband in cold blood, and she hasn't gotten over it, leading her to the bottle to numb the pain. Tragic, but not necessarily bad."
Effie stopped eating, staring at him in disbelief. "Where the heck did you get all that?"
"Princess Elise told me." Arthur answered. "I mostly filled in some of the gaps by myself, but I think I get the gist of it, unless I'm missing something else like Lady Elise believes."
"What about her being all secretive?"
"Everyone has secrets, Effie. Lady Elise only confided in me what she did because Marth said it was okay to share with me."
Effie pouted.
"You're right to be suspicious but I think you should give her a fair shot." Arthur offered. "Why don't you train with her, get to know her more, get a drink with her that isn't ale, rum, wine,… you know what I mean?"
"What makes you think that's going to work?"
Arthur smiled, shrugging his shoulders. "It worked when you met me."
Elise wasn't the only one Lilith gave a reprieve to.
"Faster, Niles. You still have many more bricks to go."
"Y-Yes, sire…"
"Just know that it wouldn't have been this bad if you didn't run."
"O-Of course, sire…"
…Just as Leo wasn't the only one being given the 'Gunter treatment'.
Currently, Leo and Corrin were sitting by a patio table, enjoying a light lunch, watching Niles carry piles upon piles of bricks to the construction site as their source of entertainment.
"You must've been really upset after last year…" Leo sipped his tea, side-eyeing his brother.
Corrin put his cup down with a smile. "Believe me, if you were solely responsible, I would have made you finish all of this construction, by yourself, all before my birthday next week."
Leo shuddered at the thought. "What were you planning on building here anyway?"
"Another wine cellar, if I remember correctly. If the population of the Fortress is growing, it will do well for us to prepare for supply shortages." Corrin explained. "Besides, it breaks up the monotony of this place sometimes."
Leo could only sip his tea in response. It was no surprise that this place was quite isolated, if at the very least self-sufficient. Despite living in the lap of luxury with unbounded respect from the garrison and staff, he could tell his elder brother was getting restless being stuck in here. Father was quite overprotective of Corrin, in his own way, and refused to give him more autonomy until he could best Xander in single combat, so that their father knows that Corrin could protect himself from anything.
That, and Corrin was still technically the Lord of the Northern Fortress, so he already planned on going back there at the end of the day.
"So, Elise tells me you're finally interested in love?"
Leo choked on his drink before glaring at his brother. "I assure you that I'm not interested in such things, Corrin."
Unconvinced, the second Prince whipped his head over to the beleaguered retainer and asked. "Niles, is Leo interested in anyone romantically?"
"Yes, sire."
"NILES!" Leo gasped, horrified at the ease of Niles' betrayal.
Corrin grinned smugly, turning his head back to the thief-turned-retainer. "Thank you, Niles, take the next two hours off and help yourself to some food in the kitchen."
"Thank you, sir!"
As Niles scampered off with a grin, Leo found himself at the mercy of his elder brother, groaning. "I see why you have the absolute loyalty of everyone who works under you."
"Naturally. Treat and pay them well, they'll do the same. Not sure why most people don't do that, but that's not what I want to talk about right now." Corrin grinned. "So, let's hear it, don't keep me in suspense."
"...If I already refused to tell Elise and Camilla, what makes you say I'll tell you?" Leo deadpanned.
"Because I technically hold authority over you until my birthday?" Corrin joked.
"Technically Camilla alone holds authority over the both of us. What's your point?"
"So, I just need Elise and Camilla to overturn any of your objections, correct?"
Leo visibly paled. "...You know Xander will tell you to knock it off, right?"
"Like he's gonna turn me down on my birthday," Corrin grinned, leaning almost uncomfortably close to the little brother.
"...Crap."
"You gonna start talking now?"
"Why do you care so much?"
"I ran out of books. Talk."
"You talk about girls more than Laslow, why don't you explain yourself?"
Corrin yanked himself back, offended by the notion. "Really? More than Laslow?"
"...Okay, fine, not more than Laslow, but you've been talking about it a lot recently." Leo relented.
Corrin relented, putting his cup down, and pressed his hands into his cheeks. "I don't think my life is going to go the way I want it to…"
Leo, concerned, puts down his cup as well. "Are you okay? Is it your health?"
"It's not my health, brother. I don't think my love life is going to make me anything but miserable."
Leo looked at his brother incredulously before moving into a supportive rant. "Miserable? What do you mean, miserable? Your people love you! The men and women who serve you here are not just loyal to you, they're more loyal to you than our own father and country! You increased the quality of their lives so much that people believe being stationed here is a godsend. You even set up the maids here with the soldiers and held many of their weddings here. How could you have trouble with women?"
"Think of it this way." Corrin explained. "We have a responsibility to marry whoever our father picks before we even consider who our hearts pick. No matter what, marrying and carrying out our family bloodline is something we're going to have to do eventually. If I even consider being able to marry someone of my choosing, I have to consider the fact that everyone here works for me, so there's a power imbalance right there. I could ask anyone here to jump off a cliff and they would ask where, how high, and if they should do a flip before they fall to their inevitable demise. I ask someone here to marry me, would they really do so out of love for me as a man or loyalty to me as a prince? If I asked, would they feel obligated to do so out of duty? Out of fear they didn't have a choice? Fear they may be stigmatized if they said 'no' and word got out? If I asked them straight out about it, wouldn't they just tell me the answer I want to hear? I have done good things for them, as they have for me, but that doubt and distrust is not something a marriage should have. Marrying someone who works here may not be feasible, no matter how much I want to, and I rarely have the opportunity to even entertain the idea of meeting a woman outside of the base."
Leo tilted his head, slightly focused on one thing he said. "How much you want to?"
"So that leaves father arranging a marriage for me. Will she be miserable because she has to stay here for the rest of her life too? Separated from the family and friends who loved her? Wouldn't I be miserable if she was too, if she was making me upset with her behavior from her being upset? If I let her leave as she's a free woman, wouldn't that marriage just be on paper, and would I be forced to watch from afar as my wife has an entire life without me, including having a family without me, at best sending a letter once every few months, and it's not like I know any better from this being trapped in this place?"
Leo was bewildered by this show of introspection from his brother, the one who always kept a straight, smiling face without a care in the world.
"Let's say I beat Xander and get to leave this place every once in a while, would anyone in the city really want to be with me?"
"Of course, brother! You're lacking some self esteem but you're still a Prince of Nohr!" Leo praised, almost rising to his feet at the notion. "And if word spreads of your victory over Xander, then you'd be renowned as one of the greatest fighters in the kingdom! What woman wouldn't want you as their groom?"
"A prince who barely interacted with women who weren't on my payroll, related to me, or have taken care of me?" Corrin snorted. "Sure, there's the novelty of a long-lost prince that hasn't been seen in the public eye for years, but you can't make a lasting love out of novelty. Would they be happy talking with such a prince, much less spending time with them for eternity?"
Leo paused at the thought. "Well, when you put it like that…"
"Now here I am, asking my younger brother who doesn't share the same fate as I, who finally showed interest in women, knowing that he has a chance for happiness that I will probably never have in this lifetime, and he refuses to tell me anything." Corrin planted his elbows into the table and sank his face into his hands.
Leo didn't know what to think. This was the first time he's seen his brother this vulnerable before, bearing such introspective feelings towards his own future that he never even considered.
Yet all he could say was, "Huh, and here I thought you were going to ask me if you should court Felicia or Lilith."
"MMMMMMMMMMMRGH!" Corrin screamed into his palms.
…That… probably wasn't the best thing he should've said at that moment. The last thing he needed was a further complication to his love life.
Sighing, Leo relented and said, "Her name is Nyx. She was this traveling fortune teller I met a while back in Windmire, and she happened to be one of the most intelligent women I have ever met."
Corrin peeked from his hands, his grin hidden underneath his palms. "Go on…"
"Sometimes, I occasionally sneak out of the villa so I can have some guidance, but half the time it's just so-" Leo did a double take as soon as he saw his brother's grin.
Corrin was doing his best to hide his smirk with his hands, still trying to look upset. "Keep talking…"
Leo just stared at his brother in shock. "D-Did… you just- Did you just play me!?"
"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Corrin laughed his heart out, despite being caught red-handed. "Guilty as charged, brother."
Leo stood up from his chair, outraged. "I-I can't believe you! You poured your heart out to me, confided in me your darkest fears of the future… just so you can hear details of my love life!?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong, little brother, the thought of me having a terrible love life was always present at the back of my mind, haunting me," Corrin said with the utmost seriousness, until it became cheerful again. "but it was definitely the first time I have used it in a positive way."
Leo rolled his eyes, plopping onto his chair, completely confounded by the means his brother bested him in a game of wits, finding himself any further way to resist him any further. "Brother, with someone as devious and clever as you, I don't believe any woman would think you're uninteresting in the slightest."
"Thank you, Leo. That really means a lot to me." Corrin took back his cup and took a sip. "So…? As you were saying. Nyx, was it? Tell me more about this crush of yours."
Late into the afternoon.
"Ahh~!"
Elise blissfully took a sip of her tea. She thought it had been a productive day. All four of them are talking to each other, harmoniously.
So peaceful.
So tranquil.
So nice they were all getting along.
"-and you then tried to fight over thirty men by yourself because you thought there would be beautiful women watching you from a safe distance!"
"They would have loved to have seen my gallantry and swoon all over me once I was finished!"
"Except they weren't actually nearby to witness your 'gallantry' and you almost died if it wasn't for us bailing your sorry arse out!"
"They were talking to me when we were done!"
…Well, not really. What was supposed to be a group intervention for Marth somehow devolved into a shouting match between all four of them when Elise tried to ask them about their past, with Marth ducking out after she calmed down, opting to enjoy her tea with Elise's company.
Elise whispered over to Marth, "Do you think we should stop them?"
"Let them get it out of their systems." Marth shrugged. "I'm going to start screaming at them once I drink this tea."
Elise covered her mouth, attempting to hide she was laughing. They were certainly close and definitely letting out all of their frustrations, despite the fact that, to an outsider, they sounded like they were going to murder each other. At least this was all cathartic and not inherently malicious. For Elise, this felt like it was at least a little bit healthy.
"How heroic did you feel when your own mother scolded you in front of them?"
"Oh, like you're any better with that fake legendary sword!" Laslow accused.
Odin gasped, scandalized. "That is the legendary Mystletainn you are slandering and it is certainly a blade of legends!"
"No, it was a random sword you found lying around and those villagers were trying to tell you so!"
"Then why did it radiate so beautifully?"
"The sun was in your eye and that thing just happened to be shiny!"
"You're an idiot!"
"No, you're an idiot!"
"How about you're both idiots and leave it at that!" Selena screamed at them.
"Oh, really? We're the idiots? How about that time you accidentally threw your lot in with a bandit camp because you thought the leader was Marth's dad!"
"That wasn't me, you dunce!" Selena pointed at Marth. "That was her sister!"
Elise perked up. "You have a sister?"
"Yes. She's back at home, taking care of family." Marth nodded, putting her teacup down and clasping her hands together. "And do tell me Selena, pray tell, what was your story again?"
"Thank you so much for asking." Arrogantly, adding prose to her voice, Selena put her hands to her heart. "I was saving a poor, poor man, who was forced to fight for a dastardly sage and reunited him with his lovely pregnant wife."
"Weren't you also blackmailed into joining that very same sage?" Marth commented.
"Hey!"
"And didn't he somehow pick off your Mother's engagement ring and hold it over your head?"
"Shut up!"
"And then it got stuck to his finger because the moron who took it from you put it on for some reason?"
"So you wanna play that game Blue-Eyes?! Well we can play that game!" An incredibly pissed off, red-faced Selena inhaled and crossed her arms. "Do you remember The Emperor's Old Clothes?"
Marth blinked, perplexed. "That? How come you're bringing that up?"
"Oh, don't you remember?" Selena teased. "It started when you 'accidentally' set your husband-to-be's coat on fire-"
Elise spat out her tea. "What?!"
"And to make it up to him, you went out on your own to get him a new one?"
"Lucina, you really didn't have to do this…"
"Nonsense, it was the least I could do."
"I already sent my coat to be repaired. It's not your fault. Where did you even find that?"
"I bought this new coat for you from Anna!"
Knowing Anna, always wanting to make a buck, she probably tricked Lucina into paying a small fortune for it.
"Okay. Let's see it." He said reluctantly. As she pulled it out, he bit the inside of his cheek and forced a smile, doing his damnedest to hide his displeasure and protect her feelings.
Within her hands was the ugliest coat he had ever seen. It was a horrendous crime against nature… and fashion. The pattern on the hood was a bizarrely shaped black and white stripe pattern that resembled an animal of some kind, the sleeves were made of yellow-dyed leather covered in big red dots, the torso was a bright green that seemed to glow in the presence of light, and there were overly-large, purple sequins over where the nipples would be. It was difficult even to look at without gagging.
"She called it: The Emperor's Old Clothes!"
'That emperor was definitely trying to get rid of it.' He thought. 'And she was definitely scammed out of her money.'
"Well don't just stand there, put it on!"
Lucina shoved the atrocity into his hands and looked at him eagerly.
'Dear Naga, why is she so cute?'
He put it on, one sleeve after another.
It somehow felt loose and too tight at the same time while simultaneously making him feel too warm and too cold.
Lucina tilted her head slightly and was looking at him expectantly.
"I love it." He lied.
He hated that it was touching his body.
He hated how he now joined her mother as a fellow victim of Lucina's 'unique' sense of fashion.
He hated that, for the foreseeable future, he would be wearing what was practically a walking 'Hi, the love of my life made me wear this. Please put me out of my misery.' sign.
But…
"Well, don't you look dashing in that!"
He hated how Lucina unwittingly guilt-tripped him into wearing this abomination. Her bright demeanor was oblivious to his discomfort.
It was as if a hex was cast upon her. One that made her smile a bit brighter, her eyes shine with pride, and altogether made her just look even more lovely in his eyes. And he hated to admit it to himself, but he adored the feeling of receiving that look on her face, even if it means subjecting himself to the scratchiest abomination that could ever possibly be considered clothing.
"Come now!" Lucina tightly clung onto his arm. "Let's show everyone!"
…Either that, or it somehow made her more cunningly malicious.
And… loathe as he was to admit it… he liked that too.
"-and he hated wearing it! And thought he was going to die in it-" Selena laughed as she regaled the Nohrian Princess of a (modified) tale from Marth's past love life.
"Psst! Selena!" Odin urgently nudged her.
"He told me how the damned thing saved his life because his opponents always laughed themselves sick at the sight of it instead of landing the killing blow!"
"Umm… Selena, you should stop now…" Laslow whimpered, rapidly tapping on her shoulder.
"But you kept clinging on to him, so he couldn't take it off until his old coat…!"
"SELENA!"
"SELENA!"
The aforementioned mercenary paused and raised a brow towards the two. "What?"
"He… didn't like the coat?"
The four froze as all eyes turned to the eldest one in the room, her azure blue eyes staring off vacantly into space.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Selena cursed under her breath while Elise got up from her seat and cautiously approached her. "Marth, it's okay-"
"*SNRK*"
And then-
"Hahahahahaha!"
Marth began to laugh. Her howling laughter engulfed the room, filling the air with a mirth that was once lost. It was almost contagious… if it wasn't just as unsettling to the others.
"...She's… she's laughing?" Elise gasped, almost in disbelief.
Laslow nearly swooned at the sight of it. "Well, there's a sight for sore eyes. Haven't heard a laugh out of her in a long time."
"Tis' not something we see her do often, milady." Odin mused. "I've only seen it so easily invoked from her husband."
"Yeah, and I'm nowhere near the comedian these two dunces are to get a laugh out of her." Selena agreed, approaching her former Lord, waving a hand in front of her face. "Marth, you alright-"
The next thing Selena knew, Marth embraced the redhead with all her might.
"Thank you, Selena. I needed that." Marth told her once she recomposed herself.
"...For spilling the beans on your husband's loathing of your gift?" Selena snarked.
"For telling me he kept wearing it anyway as an act of love for me… He never told me…" With the laughter out of her system, she sighed and sank back into her chair. "How long has it been since I've thought about him without collapsing into tears, only remembering the words that were said, the words that were left unspoken, the words that could never be taken back…"
That last line gave Elise pause. "Wait, Marth, what do you mean by that?"
Marth's smile didn't fade, and she leaned back into her chair, staring into the ceiling, perhaps in reminiscence of better times. "I didn't know I still had that in me…"
"Oh, dear. This is…"
"A disaster just upon Hoshido's horizon."
Queen Mikoto of Hoshido gasped in horror. Her retainers, Yukimura and Reina, looked over the plans, perturbed.
High Prince Ryoma, however, was outraged.
"These Faceless, those Nohrians plan on sending these, these things through our borders!?"
"It appears to be the case, Ryoma," Hinoka answered. "But from the looks of things, we still have some time before they're ready to deploy them."
Ryoma took a moment to compose himself before continuing. "Where did you get this?"
"We raided one of their precious armories by the border before burning it to the ground." Azura mused. "Now they'll have more troubles with their supply lines along the Bottomless Canyon."
Yukimura smiled, clearly impressed. "I didn't think you had it in you, Azura. I thought for sure that you wouldn't have the stomach for this kind of thing."
"As do I. However," Queen Mikoto's eyes narrowed, not in anger, but in concern and worry. "I thought I asked you for reconnaissance only, not to endanger yourselves with a stunt like that."
Azura bowed respectfully. "Apologies, Mother. But we encountered some… unlikely allies… and an opportunity arose, and we just had to take it."
"Ah, yes, them." Yukimura's eyes narrowed. "Who exactly are they? Mercenaries? Deserters? Refugees perhaps?"
"All they claim is that they are from distant lands, looking for some long lost friend of theirs." Azura shrugged. "Despite such, they were willing to put their own plans on hold in order to help me, a stranger, even assisting in the raid itself. I personally like them."
"Assist in what way?" Reina asked.
"Actually locating the armory for us to find it, upgrading our plan to its current result, and helping us destroy it." Azura giggled. "I'm quite fond of the pegasus knight in their ranks, her courage and enthusiasm are quite infectious."
"It's rare for you to make a new friend." Mikoto noted happily.
"I'll have our shinobi keep an eye on them, but if you have faith in them, then there's no need for unwarranted hostilities." Ryoma told her, his eyes wandering towards the plans, "But that still leaves us with this upcoming Faceless problem."
"Yeah, about that…'' Azura pulled out another set of papers, containing several maps, letters and even a calendar, putting them all on the table. "Our new friends found another opportunity on the ride over. The armory was expecting deliveries from several sites all throughout Nohr, with their largest site coming from the Capital City of Windmire. If we get rid of these…"
"We can be rid of their nefarious plan before they put it in motion,"
"There's one major caveat to that plan, however." Takumi pointed out. "Even if we destroy the facilities making these Faceless, they can still rebuild and continue elsewhere. Not to mention the fact, it's in their capital city, probably heavily guarded despite being put on a map."
"But not if we take out those responsible for creating these Faceless." Azura pointed out, picking up the blueprints and research notes. "Their arrogant mages did us a favor by signing these documents with their names. There are a few, but the orchestrator of the project goes by the name of Iago, his name is engraved on most of these documents. We find them, kill them, and destroy their facilities…"
"Then their plot is thwarted with no way for them to recover." Hinoka completed. "But there's still the problem of finding these dark mages."
"I have something for that too." Azura took out the calendar and pointed at a specific marked date. "In a month and a half, they will be having their Festival of the Dusk Dragon. It's their biggest holiday of the year for them. All of their nobles, rich merchants, and anyone worth a damn are invited to the capital for the festivities. All in a singular spot, just for us to find them. Now killing them wouldn't be too hard, especially when they're drunk. Their facilities will be laxer and less secure as their men are celebrating. We could go in, destroy it all, then go out with the Nohrians being none the wiser. And considering all of the horrid side effects of black magic, if we do this just right, we can make it all come off as a series of coincidental accidents, which would convince the upper echelons of Nohr's military to abandon such a costly, dangerous, and fruitless venture all at once."
All of them stared at her, dumbfounded. The plan was devious, crazy even, but all in all, it was absolutely brilliant.
"They are going to be ready to deploy sometime next year. This may be the best shot we have."
Mikoto smiled proudly. "You've outdone yourself, Azura."
"I can't take all of the credit." Azura humbly admitted, "My new friends helped me plan this."
"Did they?" Queen Mikoto turned to Yukimura. "I must meet them. Yukimura, draw up papers for them. Orochi, send them in, I want to officially welcome them to Hoshido and invite them as Azura's new retainers."
A/N: That's probably the fastest I finished a chapter. Thanks to SK as usual for beta reading this.
I kinda wanted to make this chapter a little more lighthearted than the earlier ones. It was kind of bumming me out in all honesty. Did you know this fic was supposed to be a comedic, wholesome, romantic oneshot collection but then the plans changed and now it's this. That coat flashback was something I had in my original plans, I'm glad I found a way to put it in.
How do you guys like this version of Azura? In the original game, I thought it was really weird she had knowledge of… everything. Like she was a walking exposition machine, anyways I wanted to mix that up a bit, make her a bit more actively involved in the story. So, she has a role in the war effort, the spymaster/saboteur/etc. It's actually something I haven't seen too much of in Fire Emblem fics, and I wanted to try it out. Also, I really wanted her to have new friends. It's weird she didn't have any in Hoshido originally.
Anyways, thanks for reading, please leave a review if you liked it!