A/N: Glad to see this getting some follows and favorites!

Track 7: Snow Globes, Toy Boxes, Cracked Marbles

I sometimes hate myself for being right.

During July, Xander's retainers died in the line of duty protecting him from a disturbingly organized rebel attack the very first day he personally visited Blackfrost Academy in the duchy of Armos, a small city I hadn't ever seen or heard mentioned in game. It was one of his first preemptive moves he'd been planning on doing for a while before ascending to the throne. As I understood it, it was an operation with multiple objectives in mind; firstly, it was for Xander himself to visit one of the most important soldier academies in the country and observe the caliber of upcoming knights and current teachers (Xander thoroughly wiped the ranks of his age from what I heard and gave a good run for their money to promising seniors, and that he was surprisingly humble about it); another objective was to boost morale: Royals visiting the national institutions was not that strange, and apparently it helped bring closer the army to the Royal Family, which fit well considering how Nohrian customs exalt martial might, the last and most important objective was diplomatic business with the director of Blackfrost and the Duke of Armos regarding their neighbors, the Ice Tribe.

During his travel back, Xander was ambushed, and his escort killed, including his retainers. Garon demanded Ice Tribe blood, but from what I was told, it was unclear who had actually been the perpetrators. Evidence flew right and left, both genuine and fake, and though I didn't involve myself in the case, tensions started running high then. I consulted Queen Arete about it, but she was not sure who to believe either.

From what she told me, while the people from the Ice Tribe flourished like few could within the icy edges of their home, Glacies, they were the reserved kind and didn't interact much with Armos outside of their trade agreements, as it was one of the very few territories adjacent to them in the first place, as that territory was, well, pretty fuckin' cold. Their relationship was pretty symbiotic because the Ice Tribe has apparently very potent powers to control the weather, and if Flora from canon is anything to go by, I'm not surprised. I don't know which lunatic decided to build an Academy in the middle of literally frozen nowhere, but the Nohrians and the Ice Tribe had a long time relationship. The graduates from Blackfrost were some of the best in the whole country, and from what I had been looking at their downright inhumane training regimes, it kind of made sense. Apparently, getting sent to Blackfrost was the equivalent of joining the military for the military of the military. The admissions were all open, but absolutely very few even make it through. It was the most bizarre and extreme example of the Nohrian ideology I had ever seen.

Side notes: Apparently most of the people that have made it to the very few Dark Fliers we have in the whole country come from Blackfrost, and Natasha Black is related to the Duke of Armos. Go figure.

And yeah, Dark Fliers are a thing as well, but they are actually so friggin' elite they don't reach the double digits in numbers, both because the particular breed of falicorns that they ride are one of the rarest species in the whole continent and only mate in very specific conditions within an even more specific territory between Armos and Glacies, and also are tough as hell to tame compared to their relatively tenderer, fairer ones that thrive in Hoshido. Their rising is one hell of a job maintained in joint by the Ice Tribe and Armos. I don't know what their actual combat potential is, but if the king does keep the Dark Flier program around with how absurd it is to fund, I guess they must be one hell of a force to be reckoned with.

…Awakening Galeforce!?

Sorry, back to the important stuff.

There's a bunch of reasons the Ice Tribe and Nohr remain on relatively friendly terms. Those terms are, according to the Treaty of Nohr-Glacies signed by King Siegbert Dracul du Nohr II, Chief Janus of the Berserker Hail and Archduke Grant Phospor Black (in a nutshell, because nagadamn that's a long list of terms. I understand that clarity is needed in deals like these, but I'm also a believer of there being beauty in brevity), that Nohr and the Ice Tribe are to remain on a mutually beneficial relationship and agree to provide support should one or the other be invaded by an external force (which external force, anyway!? Glacies is balls deep within Nohrian territory! This is only beneficial to Nohr!), as well as keeping their territories open for trade, with special clauses for Blackfrost Academy, allowing people from both Nohr and the Ice Tribe to enlist there, and the Ice Tribe from keeping the place from being buried in the snow completely so long the terms are respected.

Basically, the Ice Tribe keeps Blackfrost alive from the worst ice storms to keep pumping out elite soldiers for Nohr, while Nohr allows trade to reach them because of course the deep freeze is hard to live in and both just keep out of each other's ways. I'm assuming Blackfrost is more of a prison anyway, with how horrible it sounds.

…I've also heard some disturbing rumors from the maids in passing. Apparently, it actually was a prison and execution place way back, and it was where both the Ice Tribe and Nohr took their worst criminals and offed them. Nowadays though, the most important prison in Nohr is the Styx, located on the far Northern Farlands… quite close to the Northern Fortress, actually.

What business Xander had with the current Duke and Director, hell if I know, Xander of course won't privy me to the details and I didn't want to burden him with remembering anything regarding that either. What I do know is that recently things have been getting strained, because Armos is raising the trade taxes through the roof, and Chief Kilma is understandably unhappy about it.

But for it to escalate into a murder attempt for the crown prince? Arete and I both call bullshit. Arete has actually interacted with Kilma before, and from what she's told me, he's a reasonable and chill man (my words, not hers, pun completely intended), and I'm inclined to agree with her. Murdering Xander would only cause further unrest within the relationships of Glacies and the rest of Nohr. It doesn't benefit anyone.

So the investigations are ongoing. What Arete has managed to share with me, is that there were far too many casualties for the size of the operation. Apparently the task force was too small compared to the 15+ men Xander had with him. Xander had a full fucking convoy with him, for fuck's sake! Some from the Nohrian side say that Kilma's been hiding some sort of elite force for a while now, while the annoyingly vocal extremists from the Ice Tribe's side claims that the guards were too incompetent.

The bet Arete and I have? Vallites. Fucking Vallites.

There were no survivors from either side other than Xander, who was taken to the Duke's mansion in his retainer's dying breath and died in his arms. It's a dire situation, to be perfectly honest. Kilma of course doesn't recognize the attackers as people of his tribe, he insists that they are impostors posing as them, and the deliberation is nuts, while the Nohrians prosecuting them keep building a case with both truths and falsehoods.

I'm worried that this'll be the cause of Flora and Felicia being taken from their home…

Either way, we are actually preparing for the funeral of Xander's retainers and soldiers who had been accompanying him. They will be buried with medals of honor and a war heroes' ceremony.

I've been silently hovering about him for this time. I'm not sure it amounts to much or if it means anything to him, but I've been trying to take on the role of brother recently, not only to Azura, but also to our brothers and sisters.

In particular, I've grown close to the most recently made orphan, a blond boy by the name of Bismarck who's treading just behind Camilla in a few months, being that he's 7 as well, older than Leo by just a hair breadth. Bismarck is actually a very well-behaved, proper and obedient boy with quite effeminate features if I do say so myself, and a respectable height that easily makes him stand out within his age group (if he keeps growing like he has I'm not certain I'll be taller than him for long), so he's quite the bishie. He's well-liked by our instructors and shows promise in swords and bows.

His mother died by poisoning; apparently, she committed suicide via arsenic. Bismarck's mother had been growing increasingly aggressive and violent towards him, berating him for the dumbest of bullshit not even Mrs. Sorel had ever done right in front of us. In more than one occasion, Bismarck's mother had stormed in the middle of class and taken him out no questions asked. He wouldn't return for the day, and when he did, he did so covered in bruises and injuries in his neck and wrists at the very least, which he tried to hide with long sleeves.

I'm not sure about it, but I want to think his mother was slowly becoming insane or at least had a mental illness of some sort.

Another one bites the dust…

Bismarck still doesn't talk much to me, but I've been slowly getting him to open up. From what I heard amidst the maid's gossip, he sometimes spaces out hard in the middle of classes, stopping taking notes completely, and sometimes he starts breathing erratically, requiring someone to fetch him out of class. I've been helping him out by passing him down my notes and just trying to be amicable… with um… mixed results.

The best results I've had with him so far often need to make him focus in a given task. I've been brushing up on my riddles and simple card games like pair-matching. He rarely deigns a nod when we do play, but I want to think it works at least to a degree. So far he hasn't had panic attacks when we've been playing other than when I fucked up with the "If Teresa's daughter is my daughter's mother, what am I to Teresa?" riddle. In hindsight I should have been aware with a riddle like that of all kinds, but I had thought he would be able to do it.

Of course not, dumbass. Bismarck had one of his worst panic attacks yet, which required the nurse to actually drug him into sleep.

What the fuck am I supposed to do?

For now I've been keeping a little bit of distance between us. I've been making sure he knows I'm around, though I'm not sure he knows I don't want to hurt him. The last thing I did was gift him the deck of cards I had bought for us to play memory match. I hope he comes to me one day, but until then, I'll try to hover.

As for Azura? Poor girl is somber as hell, holy shit. I don't think I've ever met a kid as pessimist as her, and that's coming from me, an adult stuck in a child's body. What I had seen from her kid self in Heroes? It doesn't remotely compare. Arete had more or less made me remain physically by her side as much as I could and just… try to live our lives as brother and sister, I guess? She doesn't talk much, and when she does, she usually questions things in a way that feels you've fucked up somewhere in your life choices and should reevaluate if you're even worth to be alive. I remember in particular a conversation that went like this:

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Cleaning up my magic circles" I responded. I had been doing some refinement on my Fire circles to optimize my casting just a tad bit more. I still had problems with some runes, so redoing circles every now and then helped me both practice the basics I usually skipped and the runework. Lemme tell you that skipping your basics in spellcasting can and will result in your spell blowing up on your face if you fuck up hard enough.

Fucking. Hell.

"Why?"

"Because Master Iago asked so" I responded as a half-truth. I didn't quite know if she would be bored by me explaining the whole shtick, so I preferred going for a blunter, more straightforward answer. Though to be fair, I was having a crappy day then, and didn't want to take much more bullcrap then. "It's my homework"

"Why bother?" She said, eyeing the drawing disinterestedly.

"There's always room for improvement" I responded as cheerily as I could.

"Improve? If you fail, it'll be for nothing anyways"

I remember my hand slipping, splashing the ink bottle across the parchment, fucking up the whole circle. I hadn't expected such a cynic response.

"See? Now it's useless" She said somberly, and resumed reading her picture book.

And holy fuck did it sting. I had been working on that circle for about 3 hours (doing circumferences only by pulse is a superhuman skill, lemme tell you! No! It's not the salt speaking!), and suddenly due to a slip up, all that work had been lost.

And no one ate dinner that night…

Anyways, Azura's somberness was something Arete had fervently asked me to help fix. Azura was a very damaged child, like all of us, only that she was a bit more mature than her peers. However, that maturity was not without its drawbacks, even less when it had come from a place as shitty as Krakenburg. Arete had told me that Azura was a very bright kid before Nohr, and that she despised the sadness that now permeated her songs. Azura rarely sang nowadays, and when she did…

God. Damn.

I've always been a sucker for music, even if I'm not well educated on it. I want to think I have a good ear (untrained of course) and the basest of notions of the basics.

And the few times, each time, every single occasion I heard Azura sing I felt my heart splitting in half. No child should be able to convey such emotion with such a voice. I'm not versed enough to understand the full depths of her talent or even try to remotely follow her artistic talents, but I despised Azura's singing because of how beautifully broken it was. She should be singing happy songs, nursery rhymes, she should be singing about the joys of life, not wondering of what lies at the end, or of our purpose as people, or about the meaning of truth, despair and hope. She shouldn't be singing for bygone days, but for the future.

So I did something I wasn't sure would bode well (for my already questionable mental health), but I crunched music lessons in my already tight schedule. I had played the guitar and the drums in my previous life, heck, I still remembered a couple of songs in the guitar, and not having my original music was one of the things I missed the most. So I'd try to teach by example, or at least relate to Azura in music, the one thing she took the most solace on.

Perhaps it was just wishful thinking, but I would try reach out to her nonetheless.

Switching gears from Azura, Leo had finally started showing impressive progress in his magical studies, but at this point in time, he had had a development I hadn't foreseen, which for once was directly linked to me.

Whereas in the original game he always had the shadow of Xander to catch on, in this reality I was a more immediate goal for Leo to catch on, one he was already surpassing, and due to the divide between us three being different, as Leo and I both were bastard children and Xander the Crown Prince, Leo had genuinely started getting close to me, at the behest of his mother. Our stations were similar, and Leo, bless his little soul, was more sensitive than he let on. Leo had seen that Arete and I were close in a way he wished he were with his mother.

It had been quite a thing to get used to. Not even Xander sought out Arete remotely near to what I did, so that got me a lot of bad reputation among the concubines, who said I was sinking my cursed, brother murdering fangs in the Queen's neck.

Hilarious.

Arete and I were fellow conspirators first and something remotely simulating family second; we were united by a common cause, and we worked fervently to further our agendas. I will readily admit I had grown to have a form of affection for the Queen, but for me she was more of an aunt or even a godmother. The memories of both of my mothers, the one from the previous world and this one, left me unable to do more. Our relationship to the public was just of a rather unorthodox Queen, but we both worked hard to keep it under a mask of me being a grunt trying to climb the social ladder. Arete had always said that as I grew older, I should stop giving the appearance of being a child seeking to replace his mother and act more like a Prince of Nohr.

The rational part of me and even my conscious part agreed with that completely, but a little part of me deep within stung.

Anyways, if things kept up like they were, Leo would grow up to be someone very different to canon. I tried to play my role as a big brother, but it was hard to stay ahead when Leo was such a bright kid. His potential for magic had surfaced much earlier this time around because he didn't pursue the sword like Xander as fervently as his canon self did. I want to attribute this due to the fact that I was a very different kind of brother compared to any child in the Royal Family. Rather than try to work my ass off to try and catch up to Xander to claim the crown, my objectives lied somewhere completely different, and I focused my efforts accordingly, and ever since that incident with Victor, I was willing to try and open up to the kids.

They already had shitty lives as it was. They don't deserve to have another shitty bastard added to that list.

Besides, I don't have much to lose.

Anyways, I had won Leo over by presenting him with a couple of my favorite games from my previous world. I wished we had more people to play with, but at the same time, Leo was such a bright kid and learned so fast that if it kept up, we wouldn't have much competition, and I wouldn't be surprised if I stopped being a match for him at some point either.

And, as crafty as it may sound, I have faith that hearing us play and have a good time will inspire other kids to come to us. A hell of a risk, but I'll take on their mothers. Bring it on, you harpies.

Anyways, I was able to procure a custom set of playing cards made completely in line with the standard issue French deck from my world, as in Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds, from the Ace up to the King and Jokers, and I played a lot with my brother a bit more complicated games compared to what I did with someone like Bismarck. We wouldn't be touching Poker anytime soon, as even I wasn't sure of its rules, but I soon enough got Leo started with playing go fish, which tested both our honesty and bluffing, continental for risk vs reward management (though this one would only get truly good once Azura started joining us), old maid because of course, and I soon enough we were playing my favorite of them all: Rummikub. Goddamn Leo was bright for the thing, and though he did struggle at the beginning, he learned from the best, a.k.a. yours truly.

Other than that, Leo actually helped me with magic, or at least started doing so once he was more articulate. It seemed that he could be a good teacher. Though he still had problems with patience, and I wasn't a very bright student in all honesty, Leo managed to break down his explanations very competently and give his steps cohesively given his age. Leo was even growing on Iago, for crying out loud.

Truly a bright child.

Another of the children that I suppose didn't make it in canon, that I've been getting close to, is Marcus. He's a 5 year old with spiky, wild snow white hair and bright blue eyes.

He's also a fucking rascal,

Marcus is quite spoiled by his mother. He enjoys pulling pranks on his brothers and sisters and is showing the tendencies of a bully. I wish I had more time to step in, but as he's very young and spends most time near his mother, and when I hear he's causing trouble I'm often busy with my classes, so I can't quite give him a piece of my mind. He usually messes with Bismarck, Lucas, Lorraine and Rosetta.

Speaking of, Rosetta is 3 years old now and is a quiet one too, and she's hella cute, if I do say so myself. She's got a somewhat muted cherry red hair that's common for Chevois citizens, I hear, and also a pair of beautiful, piercing eyes of a vibrant pinkish magenta hue, traits she inherited from her mother, who's also very pretty, but fucking hell, she's one of the most stuck up of the remaining concubines.

What was that one phrase about internal and external beauty…?

Anyways, Rosetta is still too little and doesn't spend much time on her own, however, her mother, as I said, is quite the bitch and doesn't really pay attention to her, leaving Rosetta in the care of the maids. She also is one of the remaining concubines dumb enough to keep antagonizing the others after all this time and so many dead children. I think she's still deluded in thinking she can use her beauty to pull Garon to her side.

So pretty, evil and dumb. What a winning combination we got here.

There's also Lorraine, who's near Leo in age. I actually like spending time with Lorraine, as she's surprisingly easy to get along with. She's a bit of a social butterfly, and she's getting crafty as hell in avoiding punishments by sweet talking her way out. It's… quite a surprise to see a 7 year old getting away from fucking Iago merely by wit. Since she's skipping classes so often, she usually stumbles across Marcus being a bully, and then her mean streak gets going. She's the main reason her and Marcus' mothers will be causing the next death, I fucking swear, and it's why I keep a close eye on Lorraine, usually by pulling her along with Leo if or when I can, provided she's up to it.

…Doesn't happen too often, to be perfectly honest.

Finally, we also have Lucas. Oh lord, little Lucas. He's also a rascal, but for completely different reasons to Marcus, which get him constantly in trouble. Lucas is a blistering hothead that keeps trying to prove himself to everyone and everybody that remotely looks at him funny, which I've heard is a result of his mother encouraging him "to not be a wuss" and that kind of garbage, which is why he keeps getting in fights with Marcus, who absolutely adores pressing his buttons, to great effect of course. It's very irritating seeing his dumb 4 year old self constantly on the nursery. Poor guy will get his ass thoroughly kicked when he starts his education next year.

Also, Elise finally joined us this year. Born right on time at March 19, just a few weeks after Azura's birthday. We weren't allowed to see her directly, as her mother kept her zealously guarded and away from everybody in the castle not named Garon (who I heard had only graced her during childbirth and promptly disappeared), and honestly, it was also a bit of a surprise. Her mother was one of the most reserved ones, and I was very surprised that she had managed to keep it hidden at all. As far as I knew, Xander was the only one that knew, and it was only because Garon had confided so in him. Not even Arete knew, but then again, she was used to Garon's lifestyle.

Sadly, Elise's mother passed away just a few days after giving birth. Apparently the strain was simply too big on her, and had been sickly ever since before. Right now Elise was being nursed by the maids

I'm… a bit torn on how to proceed, honestly. On one hand, I'm glad she's finally here with us, and I will protect her as best as I can, but on the other, I'm not sure I can even give my time to her. I'm already splitting my time with advanced classes on top of my normal studies as well as spending time with Azura, Bismarck, Leo, trying to look out for Lucas, Rosetta, Lorraine and fucking Marcus, and also scheming with Arete.

But the single one I have the most trouble getting along with is Camilla, surprisingly, and I suspect it's because she's received her orders to kill yet another of our siblings soon, and some part of me suspects her next target is me, actually. We share classes since we're so close in age, and she does well for herself in basically all subjects, but Camilla actively refuses to reach out to anyone.

It's heartbreaking to see her suffer in silence, and so far all my efforts have been for naught. But I guess I'll keep trying.

Finally, there's Mr. Big Brother himself, Xander.

Xander is one hell of a case. I can only imagine all the stress he lives under as Crown Prince, and though I don't know how close he was to his retainers, their deaths have hit him hard. That much is obvious considering how Garon's been distancing himself from all of his children. Heck, I don't think he even knows half of our names. Anyways, I don't talk to Xander often, but I know he's always nearby, that his best wishes are with us. I wish I could do more for him, I truly do… but I have my own things to focus on.

Namely, because I fear that our last brother between Xander and me will do something absolutely stupid soon.

Our last brother is Norbert, who's my senior 2 years and 1 junior to Xander, and I'm very tempted to say that the main problem regarding his position is that frankly put, he doesn't have any sibling to support him. Here's the thing, right now the order goes, from youngest to eldest: Elise (Newborn, 4 months), Rosetta (3), Lucas (4), Marcus (5), Lorraine (7), Leo (Also 7), Bismarck (7), Azura (Yet also 7), Camilla (8), Me (Also 8), Norbert (10), and finally Xander (11), and this left us on quite an awkward situation.

I had been flocking the children together as best as I could, but it was a nightmare from merely an administrative standpoint for both myself and our caretakers, because Norbert had been basically left behind. Xander is basically on his own group by himself, with the crown prince position demanding him to create distance to us, but as things had been progressing lately, I was the 3rd Prince, and my own unique approach to the situation plus what our tutors had planned beforehand had allowed me to basically lead all the 7 year olds, with the others being too young, so I was too young to integrate Norbert into our group, and he also actively refused to join us, His mother was one of the absolute worst, too, so we had a tough cookie to us.

I could splice my time to spend time with the 7 year olds due to our schedules sharing most breaks, and the youngest ones being the youngest had a bit of free reign in how they spent their time.

Norbert not so much. His classes were 2 years above mine, and though I did share some of my advanced classes with him (we shared the teacher but not the subjects), he understandably didn't feel comfortable around me and I didn't have much in the way to make conversation of when he both gave me the stink eye and actively refused to interact with any of the siblings. Being just 1 year old below Xander, I figured he preferred catching up to him rather than "lowering" himself to us, the other bastard children, and with Leo honestly growing away from trying to surpass Xander, a path I'd help him follow (though I had my doubts); It was just far healthier for him. It'd take a hell of a time and maybe his mother would surely need to step out of his life, but I'd try. So Norbert had no pressure from below, but still one crushing pressure from above.

I'd try to play it slow with him. He'd be one hell of a cookie to crack, but that wouldn't stop me. In just a few months I had gotten Lorraine to attend just a few more of her classes and I had managed to score a good spanking on Marcus (of which I felt damn proud of, even if I got myself on his mother's target). I'd keep his and Camilla's spots open.

The problem of course, would be getting Norbert to desist trying for the throne. A task easier said than done, of course. A task I still wasn't sure how to follow. I have a better chance at influencing the younger ones than I do Camilla and Norbert, as cold as it sounds.

On the July I was 8 years old, I want to think we Nohrian siblings, even with our ill bickering, loads of issues around our lives still poking at us from every corner and at every bone, and still with the threats of more deaths hanging among us, I want to think that all of us, standing side by side at the graves of the brave people who protected Xander's, our eldest brother's, life, we had a chance to brave the whole fucking universe.