Here is the next chapter of FoOF! To be honest, for a while I had NO idea what I was going to do for this one. But then, I was finally inspired after the rewrite of "Rage Over The Past", so I came up with something. This chapter wound up being more backstory and explanations of behavior, with a couple of tangents, then anything else. What that means is, this chapter was essentially unplanned and made completely on the fly, unlike practically every other chapter in this spinoff. I hope that you guys think that this chapter turned out decently for what it is. Two more left to go. One about Ferry and Lewyn, and one exclusively about Dew.
As always, please leave a review and enjoy!
Given her origins, she shouldn't have been so proud. Noblemen have affairs and sire bastards all the time. So, nothing should have made her special. But the fact that her father ultimately decided not only to recognize her, but to legitimize her, made her special. Hence was the wellspring of her pride.
Well, to be more precise, it greatly enhanced her pride. The reason why she was legitimized in the first place was because of an incident that happened in the first place because she was ALREADY treated like royalty. She was a preteen at that point, and it's likely her legitimization wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for that incident.
To understand the circumstances behind her legitimization, and thus, the course that her life would take, one must first know of her roots. Lachesis's mother was the former caretaker for Nordion castle, and in the opinion of many, a fine figure of a woman. That opinion was shared by the king of Nordion, who eventually had a longstanding affair with the caretaker... which eventually led to Lachesis.
Out of fondness for her mother, the king of Nordion likely would've legitimized her from the start. However, the caretaker did not wanted to deal with the uproar that this would cause (as Eldigan's mother still had another two years of life left in her and word of the affair would create a huge scandal), so she abruptly turned in her resignation and left without informing the king of his child. She eventually settled down in a frontier village with her little Lachesis, where she hoped she could live in obscurity.
However, the locals did suspect something. All of Agustria was at least familiar with the lords of Nordion, and the citizens could recognize the marks of one of its members. From the family resemblance, to her naturally regal bearing, to the subtle yet noticeable blessings that her bloodline granted her. They respected her mother's wishes and didn't speak of it out loud, but it affected how the two of them were treated. Because bastard or not, a Nordion was a Nordion, and they were to be revered, so Lachesis always was. Lachesis's mother never quite caught on (somewhat willfully), and thought she was just seen as the town belle.
So the two ladies were treated like they were the local nobility. While this initially brought them good things, Lachesis eventually attracted the unwanted attention from the majority of the local population of young males, all vying for her favor. (After all, how often would someone like THEM get a chance with someone like her?) As they all grew, they all began to grow more violent in their contests for her favor, a fact of life that Lachesis grew to despise. Fighting over something important, she could understand, but over HER, or more specifically, POSSESSION of her, that inherently disgusted Lachesis.
She actively tried to discourage these fights, but they continued to occur and grow worse until one day one of them turned into a murder, thus attracting the attention of the ACTUAL local lords. That was how Eldigan first came into her life. He was brought in as part of the investigation.
He quickly recognized why all the local boys were taken in by her. But he also realized that they had been fighting over the surface details. The truth of the matter, Lachesis wasn't beautiful and regal like a dove or swan, or some rare flow, like some of the local boys had claimed. No, this young lady was a majestic lioness, that was the conclusion that Eldigan came to within a day of meeting her.
As details of the situation were brought forward to him, he became more and more certain that his conclusion was correct. It was discovered that after the murder had taken place, the perpetrator had tried to seize her. Instead of acting like a typical damsel in distress, Lachesis had instead defended herself and badly wounded him. A wound that actually enabled his swift capture.
As the investigations into Lachesis herself proceeded, Eldigan didn't need to do much investigating in order to realize that the rumors about her being nobility were, in fact, true. He recognized her mother, and remembered the fuss made about her sudden departure from Nordion. He was able to put the pieces together from there just from ancillary details and Lachesis's appearance alone.
He had a long talk with the old caretaker before she passed, and she did pass away shortly after this. The stress of the incident and investigation caused her to have a heart attack. She survived the initial attack, but was unable to recover from it and was well on her way to the afterlife by the time that Eldigan left for home.
Eldigan had a long talk with his father about the situation when he got home, and it was decided that Lachesis would be brought to Nordion and be raised as a proper princess from then on.
While Eldigan new from almost the beginning that they were both related, Lachesis did not. She knew that everyone treated her in a special manner, but as stated previously, nobody spoke of her probable noble status out loud around her. Thus she had no idea who she likely was. Thus, she quickly found herself smitten with Eldigan once he showed up. Here was the first man in her general age range that she had met to not immediately go all gaga over her! And he fit all of her criteria for a proper man too! The seeds of love were thus planted in her heart, seeds which were affected by the death of her mother.
When Eldigan showed back up, providing her with a way out of the situation she found herself in, her heart immediately latched onto her "savior". Once she found out that he was, in fact, her half brother... it was too late to fully detach it. It did not help that, while her life at Nordion castle was a definite step up, the general attitude of the male population remained consistent, with Eldigan remaining the sole exception in her eyes.
Thus, she developed her infamous standards for a suitor. Her perceived brother complex.
People took note, and rumors abounded. While there was some truth to them on her end, on Eldigan's...
He was always quite fond of her, from the moment that he met her that held true. But is fondness the equivalent of love or holding her up as his standards for a woman? He had known from almost the beginning that she was his half-sister, and in his younger years, he was a bit of a tsundere, he didn't make immediate emotional connections. Thus, he didn't fall in love with her by mistake. Given what had happened recently, he wouldn't have considered it.
You see, while he had been studying in the academy in Granville, a controversial scholar had come to the academy and explained that his studies implied that genetic diversity actually helped a bloodline in the long run, and thus he encouraged the dissolution of racial prejudices that led to marriage between couples from different nations to be frowned upon. Predictably, there had a been a backlash, (As the Grannvallians saw themselves as the supreme race, with Agustrians and Silessians a rung beneath them, those from the northern Thracian Penninsula half a step below that, and everyone else even lower than that) Sigurd, Quan, and Eldigan, who all thought such prejudices were ridiculous to begin with, had all thought that he had made a compelling argument.
They all agreed that if one of them fell in love with a foreigner and a controversy arose because of it, the others would help him fight tooth and nail for her.
They had barely made this promise when the King of Nordion started to put pressure on Eldigan to marry. All of this was going on in the background when Lachesis arrived in Nordion. While she was mooning over him, he was already planning to visit Quan in Leonster. Planning to scout out the ladies at the court while he was there in order to see if there was one who fit his father's (and to some degree his own) standards.
He found Grahnye. She wasn't perfect, but... she was suitable. Not really a firm believer in love, Eldigan wound up simply settling with her, since she fit enough requirements. Still, he was a bit disappointed that she contained none of Lachesis's fire. He would've preferred a woman with fire in her. But alas those weren't popular and weren't encouraged in the courts. So he lived with his rather plain wife.
Grahnye was no fool, and she quickly realized that her husband bore her no real... will towards her. Good or bad. This eventually bred some resentment in her heart towards her sister in law, whom Eldigan showed nothing but good will for, and she came to believe the rumors about her relationship with Eldigan.
While Eldigan always remained foremost in her mind, for whatever reason, Lachesis found Finn to be fascinating on some level. Quan and Ethlyn blatantly put quite a lot of trust in him, and yet he didn't seem to notice or care. He acted as if every task he was assigned was a test of worth for a greenhorn, despite his age and body language implied that he had at least a couple of years of experience under his belt. It was clear to her that he was good at his job as Lord Quan's personal knight, but utterly lacked pride in his work or self-confidence. He considered everything simply doing his duty.
Lachesis couldn't recall ever encountering anyone like him before. Thus, she gained a desire to study this unusual rising knight, and she was given a good opportunity to when, as a favor to Eldigan, Lord Quan assigned Finn as her personal guard.
At first, she was thrown off by the fact that Finn did not behave around her as most men did. With some prodding, she managed to figure out that he did indeed revere her as much as other men, however, he had absolutely no desire to even attempt pursuing her. He was respectful and he knew his place. Their relationship must remain purely professional, and personal feelings must not interfere with his duty. Considering that Eldigan was the prototype for her ideal man, and he was made of honor, she respected his dedication to honoring his knightly vows. So she respected and appreciated him in return for it. After all, his dedication to his knightly duties was almost on par with Eldigan's so of course she would highly value him.
Of course, he wasn't quite Eldigan. He technically wasn't of high rank, and he lacked the bearing and the confidence that Eldigan did. But maybe she could help him with the latter two things, she specialized in poise and confidence after all. If she could successfully train Finn to have a sense of pride in himself, and if he was promoted... she considered she might try being the pursuer for once and shake things up.
In her eyes, Finn was well on his way to becoming the most worthy man that she could possibly get besides Eldigan, who was completely out of her reach. All her other suitors paled in comparison, suitors like that Beowolf fellow. He joined the army claiming to be a friend of Eldigan's. While Eldigan was indeed familiar with him, calling them friends was a bit of a stretch. In her eyes, this was simply a blatant attempt on his part to win favor from her. That irritated her. So while she was cordial when she was around him, she primarily ignored his presence.
Then Eldigan was murdered and her world seemed to burn. She used the term murdered because he clearly didn't fight back, and Chagaal was so smug as to send Eldigan's head back to them in a container. Initially, she couldn't even process her grief. All she could feel was rage and hate for the man who had stolen her world away from her. She went straight to the battlefield and like a lioness stalking a wounded wildebeest, she stalked Chagaal.
After receiving mortal injuries in the main battle inside the castle, he had tried to run like a coward and slip into a hidden passage. But Eldigan had taught her all about these passages before he died. As Chagaal fled, Lachesis ambushed him as he descended a stairway and stabbed him in the eye with her Earth Sword. Using the momentum, she grabbed him by the back of the head and violently slammed him into the wall repeatedly.
As he slid down into a blood heap, she shrieked "Take a look at what remains of your precious kingdom you smug son of a bitch! It's nothing but the stones and blood that you see before you now, and it's all your fault! You've ruined us! You've ruined us all! You've destroyed Agustria!"
Chagaal, somehow still barely alive, tried to crawl away. With strength rivaling her brother's, she seized a broken chunk of stone from the wall, and slammed it down on his back with all of her might, crushing his spine.
Then she collapsed to her knees, turning into a sobbing wreck. That was the state in which Finn and Beowolf found her.
Lachesis knew that Eldigan would've been appalled by what she did to Chagall. After all, had he not laid down his life because he could not bear to take that course of action? Thus her grief and her guilt caused her to retreat into her room and fall into a cycle of self harm and reparation, with the aid of her Earth Sword. After letting this go on for a few weeks, Finn finally forced her to break the cycle by forcing her to stab him with it, and thus causing her to actually be rejuvenated instead of being caught in an endless cycle of self harm that automatically undid itself.
In some timelines, whenever this sequence of events happened, this shocking event generally shocked her out of her stupor and caused her to put her life together and to fall for Finn. But here... in this version of events, the message that she should live did get through to her, but her grieving mind muddled it. Twisted it.
Her grief had brought her to the edge of madness, and such a disturbed mind... is not conducive for logical thinking, even when it has been shocked back to reality. In her mind, the fact that Finn was willing to go to such an extreme was the last proof that she needed that he was a perfect fit for her extreme standards. And the way that her mind interpreted the "you need to live?" message?
Most of the noble lines of Agustria were either dead or dying now. Ares still lived, so it seemed that Agustria's last chance may in fact lie in the house of Nordion. As one of its last representatives, she should live on. And... since she was one of its last representatives, shouldn't she aid her country and add to it? Here was someone who had more than proved that they were worthy of mingling with her, and they were encouraging her to live. Maybe she should live in order to continue the bloodline with him. Not the most logical or moral of thought processes, but in times of duress, aren't logic and morals among the first things to flee from us?
So she ceased trying to hurt herself, and instead tried to seduce her savior. Incessantly. He refused her with adamant resolve. She thought that she could wear him down with time, but with time his responses only grew harsher and more firm. Finally, he went to his lord and requested that he be removed from his post as her bodyguard, even reporting why. He didn't even try to hide that he did it, he did it when she could hear him.
That's when she realized the bitter irony of her situation. She had found a man worthy of the standard that Eldigan had set in her heart... but Eldigan would never have acted as she wanted Finn to act. Indeed, she realized, if they had not been siblings and he had been in Finn's position, Eldigan would have reacted in a similar manner. She had set for herself an impossible requirement, an irreconcilable prerequisite and reward... and now she was actively seeking for it to be fulfilled. She cried out in agony and despair once she realized it.
She'd never have her perfect knight... so she might as well throw herself to one of those lesser suitors that had been hounding her for her entire life. That is how she eventually found herself in Beowolf's bed. That's how she eventually found herself bearing Beowolf's son.
She wasn't blind. She could see the condescending looks, the glares, the shaking heads. She knew that she had now and forever irreparably damaged her image. She would forever be seen as the spoiled princess with the brother complex and loose legs. But... all of their reputations were officially in the gutter as of right now. It... it just didn't matter any more. Their looks of disapproval didn't matter.
But one look did, indeed, matter. Did, indeed, hurt her. The baleful, disappointed look that Finn gave her over it. She couldn't escape from it. Even when he left. Even when she tried to bury her thoughts of him and concentrate on her child and its father.
Beowolf telling her that he had been aware of her true feelings, and to go join Finn in Leonster just tore open the wound in her heart anew. What would she say? What would she do in order to make up to him? How could they reconcile?
As it seemed, it wasn't as difficult as she expected. The full weight of the twin massacres and the fall of the northern peninsula put him in pretty much the same position in which she had been in following Eldigan's death. Prince Leif was his only reason for living now, but he was drained. She could tell. When they finally had room to breath, they sat down and had a long talk. At the end, she propositioned him again. Though this time, she wasn't forceful in the slightest, and she made it clear that she was completely willing to back down.
Finn took note, and no harsh words were spoken this time. The fall of Leonster had made him cynical, and he just didn't care about following his code to the letter anymore. A livable life for his lord and possibly himself is all he wanted now. He really needed to find some kinds of joy in life other than in serving his lord, so he relented. It did not take long for Nanna to be conceived. Through her, her father did find something new to live for.
But this new status quo, this potential for a relatively happy ending among the ruins of northern Thracia, was ruined by guilt. Around the time that they found refuge in Tahra, her thoughts had begun to wander. She had begun to think of the son that she had abandoned to Isaac. He was the third of three men she could say the she had wronged. Finn, Beowolf, and Delmund.
She wanted to right her wrongs. As far as she could tell, she had made things right with Finn, but as for the other two... Beowolf was long dead. There was nothing that she could do for him now. The best she could do was make the reparations she owed their son, count for him. And she did owe Delmund.
Everything about the way she had handled him was wrong. From his conception to his care. She had never been particularly fond of him, and if she was being honest with herself, she had forked him over to Adean with nary a second thought. Nanna had received all of the love that a child should receive from their mother, and Delmund had received none whatsoever. He had never really known his mother's love.
That was wrong.
That was utterly and unforgivably wrong on so many levels. She realized that. So now, years later, she felt immense guilt over the way in which she had treated her son. Over time, the desire to do something about him increased. The desire to take him back and to make up for lost time, to give him the love that he should've been receiving all along.
That was the reason why she was so insistent that she must go to Isaac in order to retrieve him. Her guilt, like her grief years earlier, blinded her to reason. Her guilt forbade her from seeing Finn's point when he tried to dissuade her. Her guilt is what caused the words to be spoken that ultimately drove them apart.
Fed up with being denied the chance to get her son back, she angrily yelled at Finn "You're only trying to stop me because Delmund means nothing to you. Heaven forbid you care about someone who isn't your lord, daughter, or the woman your'e screwing. Nope, this poor lonely child doesn't matter because he's not your son."
She had struck a nerve, and now Finn was seething. "Yes, he's not my son. And who's fault is that?! Because the gods know he should've been! Given a few years and time. But no, as usual, you had to throw reason to the wind and follow your own idiotic, ill-thought-out plan. What happened as a result? You threw yourself at the first cur that came your way even though you didn't give a damn about him, and have regretted it ever since. Why can't you accept reality for what it is for ONCE in your GODDAMN LIFE?!" he bellowed.
Lachesis was mortified. In that instant, it had become abundantly clear to her that Finn had never truly forgiven her for what she had done. He had simply chosen to forget it and not bring it up. It hurt, it... it felt like a betrayal.
She couldn't stay around. Not after this. She didn't say another word. She only gave him a look. She turned about and walked away. She packed her essentials, said farewell to the children, and left for Isaac.
She never reached Delmund. She made a stop at Darna and accidentally attracted the attention of some spies for the Loptyrian sect. They figured out where she must be heading and made some preparations for her.
As she traveled, she had to pass by the Yied Shrine. She couldn't see the shrine sitting on the clifftop, as it was night, but she was experienced enough to realize that it was a great place for an ambush. She was a Master Knight after all. Her battle instincts told her to be ready, so she had one hand on her sword, and another on her tome. Just as she was about to make the turn away from the cliffs the shrine was situated on and make her way down the path towards Isaac, the inevitable trap was sprung.
However, she was ready. In fact, she obliterated the trap. Thirty odd mercenaries and dark priests against a lioness of Nordion. They never stood a chance. Even then, however, she was not safe. For the Loptyrians had a couple of backup plans up their sleeves.
The first? They had someone with a ready Fenrir tome waiting on top of the shrine just in case the ground troops failed. The initial shot that came her way missed, and alerted her of the danger, so she set her horse into a gallop and made a beeline for Isaac castle. Two more shots were fired at her from the shrine, and one of them did manage to hit her. However, it was non-lethal, so she shrugged it off and kept up her charge onwards towards the Isaac capital.
The Loptyrians, however, had prepared an ambush there as well. This was bad, as not only was she exhausted, but she was also badly injured, and she might have mild heat stroke. But still, she was a lioness to the end, and if it was fight that they wanted, then she would fight them tooth and nail. She thought, taking her hands off of her injury and reading them for a fight.
A fight which never happened. After she had escaped to ambushes in succession, they didn't want to take any chances, so one of their number had a fully charged Stone spell in hand, and he simply touched her horse, and released the spell, then darted off. Or at least tried to. Lachesis noticed him, and decapitated him, and then with her spare hand, threw a fireball into the crowd. Then her entire body was encased in stone.
After debating it among themselves, the sect members decided to send her petrified remains to Nordion. After all, would the people not love a monument in honor of their lioness? Perhaps the dedication of a statue in her honor, showing her at her best, in the midst of battle as a Master Knight, would help to quell unrest for at least a time.
And so Lachesis received the ironic fate of being a decoration in the heart of Nordion while her children struggled against imperial ambition.