June was one of the busier months of the year. Considering that all the family Chrom knew of either lived at the castle or had died years prior, they held army reunions instead of inviting extended family. Everyone who fought in either one of the last two wars were invited—in most cases, only the close friends who fought in both wars could come. Because of the expected guests, Chrom and Robin hoped to do more work beforehand so they wouldn't have to do anything but enjoy the company.

In addition to reunions, due to the gap in birthdays they opted to celebrate Robin's birthday in June—typically during the week of the reunion, but sometimes before or after depending on her preference that year—since she didn't have any recollection of what her birthday actually is (technically speaking, they only have an estimated age for her as well—it was one of her more constant mysteries, in a way).

The kids came back in time to see the first few guests filter in, and Chrom was happy to see them enjoy it as their friends came; Lucina smiled as she spoke with any of her friends that couldn't often visit (any that lived in Valm or traveled), and Morgan happily told Noire about their recent endeavor. Robin seemed happier too, which was definitely good to see—reunions went by easier when she could bear the past with a smile.

The first night, all of the Shepherds were there—they stayed at the castle instead of traveling back home for a day or two, but all of their spouses were here now as well—and some others had arrived. That night for dinner, the tables were arranged in such a way that there was something similar to an 'adult' and 'kid' table—although there were several tables for each, it was generally done so they could talk about whatever they wanted without the other overhearing, especially in the case of the adults. The banter was jumbled enough from the other table that you could barely make out what they were saying, so it coincidentally meant that the adults could refer to lost comrades by name.

Flavia—the only one of the khans who could make it—spoke up at some point while they were talking about future Lucina. "Basilio always complains about how he can't get Lucina to fight for him anymore. He wants to see father and daughter duel—for a second time, I suppose."

"Should've watched the Shepherds' reunion, then!" Sully said, looking at her. "Nothing said you guys weren't invited, and it was as close as you can get—not the same daughter, but Chrom and Lucina did fight."

Flavia laughed. "He'd be disappointed, then!"

"Why isn't he here?" Lissa asked curiously. "Normally Basilio's the one to show up first!"

"He had something else to do," Flavia replied with a shrug. "I don't ask about what the oaf does—I just let the oaf do it. He'll tell me if it can kill him."

They fell into a conversation about the khans for a moment before Robin spoke up to muse, "We first came to Ferox… What was it for?"

"Asking for their aid in fighting Plegia," Chrom reminded her. He cast her a smile. "Age catching up to you there?"

"Oh, stop," Robin muttered, swatting at him and wearing her own little smile. "You can't blame me—it's been close to two decades. A lot has happened since then." Growing a bit more wistful, she added, "We were doing it for Emmeryn, weren't we?"

"Yeah," Lissa agreed. "We went back to Ylisstol, defended Emm from Validar that first time thanks to Lucina, then went back to Ferox after we were ambushed. We were told Emm would be killed after that…"

Unfortunately, when musing came it often led to some grim conversation about lost family and friends. Emmeryn, the future children… With most of the army there to reminisce, a bad memory or two was bound to bring silence. And, for a little while, the adults all fell silent—those who knew her, and those who understood that they should respect her memory despite not knowing her personally.

Quietly, Olivia spoke up next. "Did you…ever get her body?"

"We had to go," Robin replied, shaking her head. "We couldn't get her."

"At the same time, though," Lissa continued, attempting to cheer them up, "Remember those rumors about a woman like Emm wandering around Regna Ferox? We heard about it around the time that we were going to fight Grima, so we couldn't go look into it."

"Hmmm… Maybe that's what Basilio was doing," Flavia mused. "Something about those rumors coming back up. They didn't last too long last time, so he wanted to figure out where they came from this time—someone probably got reminded of the original story and decided to repeat it for the sake of it."

Chrom sighed, speaking the last few words of the grim conversation. "No one can survive that fall. Anyone who fell before her certainly didn't."

The group fell silent again for a time, generally listening to the loud voices from the kids' tables. There was an uproar, the clear sound of one of them protesting, and laughter. It seemed to remind Lissa of future Owain, and she burst into a story about how he wanted to name her staff once. It prompted some others to do the same—they were able to laugh at the fond memories of people they haven't seen in years.

When the meal ended, most of them went outside to continue the conversation. Eventually, there was a bet between two of the kids and they went to the training area—most of the adults followed them as a result, since many of them were interested in watching the kids grow (even if they didn't have kids themselves). While the kids assembled to form a few teams, the adults sat down near the edge of the training area and, for the most part, continued their conversation—others opted to join the kids, who let them join a team.

Robin sat next to Chrom, with Tharja sitting on her other side. When Tharja started to participate in a conversation with others, Robin looked at Chrom. "In a way," she said quietly, "The future kids are kind of like Emmeryn, aren't they? No guarantee that they're alive, yet…no definite evidence that they're dead, either."

"I like to believe they got where they wanted to be," Chrom replied, looking back at her. "Everyone said that they wanted to, at least."

Robin glanced up at the sky for a moment. "Why is it…that I couldn't say goodbye to either of them?"

Chrom couldn't answer, so he fell silent. Fortunately, the rest of the reunion never got quite as grim as it had that night.

(A/N: Fun fact! In the original Mini Shepherds, this chapter was basically just a conversation between Chrom and Lucina where he noted her similarities to Emmeryn. What sparked that idea was when I was playing Awakening, and as I watched the cutscene where Emmeryn falls, I went "wow, she looks like Lucina." So I mentioned it in the story! But it was awkward when I rewrote it, so I decided to go with this instead. I hope you enjoyed the chapter regardless!)