Author's note: This story takes place a bit over eleven years after the events of Awakening.

Bedtime Stories

It was a regular evening in the kingdom of Ylisse. The blue sky slowly turned into a colorful dawn and the merchants in the streets started closing their shops.
In a simple house near castle Ylisstol Noire, the nine-year-old daughter of the master tactician Robin, and her seven-year-old sister Morgan prepared for bedtime. Their mother, the dark mage Tharja was happy that her children would finally go to sleep and that she would have time for herself, to work on her curses and potions. Usually Robin was the one to bring them to bed, but he was on a very important meeting with Chrom today and he had told her that it could take quite a while until he would return, meaning that Tharja had to look after their children alone.

After the two kids brushed their teeth and changed into their pajamas it was time for Tharja to say good night. "Sleep well, dream sweet and stop going on my nerves, okay?" She asked with a monotone voice. The dark mage was ready to leave her kids to the world of dreams, when she heard a voice call to her.

"But you haven't read us a good-night-story yet!" This voice belonged to Noire, who seemed very unwilling to stop being awake right now.

"A what?" Tharja asked, fearing that the little bit of free-time she had left for the day was in danger of being consumed by the seemingly unending task of being a parent.

"Papa always reads us a story before bedtime. It helps us sleep. If we don't get a good-night-story we will stay awake all night." Noire explained.

Tharja let out an annoyed sigh. Unlike Noire's future counterpart, the younger present-version of Noire was quite energetic. If she would try to stay awake all night it would only end in chaos. It seemed like it was necessary for Tharja to sacrifice what little free-time she had left, to get her kids to sleep.
"Fine. But I will only read you a short story, understand?" The dark mage asked with a strict voice.

Noire and Morgan nodded eagerly and Morgan took a book from the night-stand next to her bed and gave it to her mother.
"Papa bought this story-book for us. We are already by the fourth story." She exclaimed, proud of her good memory.

Tharja took the book and looked over the cover. It was a collection of old Ylissian fairytales from about twenty years ago. The cover displayed multiple happy children dancing on green fields. It looked disgustingly cheesy and overly cute to her, but as long as her children would finally be quiet, it was probably worth reading from.
Trying not to waste time, so that she could get back to her curses as quickly as possible, Tharja opened the book and started looking for the story where Robin left off. After she found the fourth story she sat herself onto a chair between the two beds of her children and began to read.

"This story is called Hans and Greta.
Once upon a time there was a small village full of friendly welcoming people. In the village everybody helped each other out and since it wasn't very big, most people knew each other very well. At first glance, this village would seem like a perfect place to grow up in, but there was one major flaw: The village had been built right next to a haunted forest. It was said that various monsters and shady creatures housed in these dangerous woods, which is why all the people in the village were too afraid to enter the forest. All of them except two young siblings named Hans and Greta."

Noire and Morgan adjusted themselves in their beds, eagerly listening to their bedtime story. Even though their mother wasn't reading the story nearly as enthusiastic as their father used to do it, their young minds were still captured by the fantastical world that the fable provided.

"These two found the haunted forest very interesting and wanted to play in it. So, one day they decided to go up to their parents and asked: Mother? Father? Can we go into the woods? We want to play hide and seek, but we already know all the best hiding places in the village, so it's not fun anymore.

Their parents exchanged a concerned look and then their father decided to kneel down in front of them, to get on their eye-level and said: I forbid you to ever enter the forest! It is too dangerous. I don't want to hear you talk about going there ever again, understand?
The kids were confused by their father's words. Why are the woods so dangerous? Greta asked. Their father looked into their eyes with a very serious expression on his face.

I guess it is time that you learn about the true danger of the woods. Deep, deep in the forest there houses an evil dark mage. She lives in a gingerbread-house made of a variety of candy and she offers any children who visit her to eat from them, but every child who is fooled by her, ends up in her oven and gets eaten themselves."

Tharja interrupted herself to read the last two sentences a second time. She paused for a moment. Up until now she has paid very little attention to the story, but now she was slightly weirded out by it. She decided to skip a few pages and read further parts of the fable by herself.

Blah blah blah… The children get lost in the forest… Blah blah blah… They find the gingerbread house… Blah blah blah… The dark mage tries to eat them… Blah blah blah… The dark mage gets shoved into an oven and gets burned alive?!

She closed the book and thought about this for a moment. This dumb Ylissian fairy tale felt like an insult to her culture and her occupation. Dark mages living in gingerbread-houses and getting defeated by little children? What an inaccurate and straight up idiotic representation of the dark arts. She would have to have a serious word with Robin about the type of literature that he bought for their children.

It wasn't until she heard Noire's voice that Tharja remembered that her children were still awake. "Dark mages don't really eat children, right?" the young girl asked her mother. She tried to sound confident, but her voice betrayed her, revealing that she was a little hesitant. Meanwhile, Morgan just seemed very confused. "Maybe some of them eat children, because they have already used all of their candy to build their houses…" she said, trying to make sense of the story.

"Of course dark mages don't eat children! And they don't live in houses made of candy either! This fairy tale is just being ridiculous…"
Tharja answered her daughter's questions. "Though I have heard that some sorcerers use children-bones as an ingredient for anti-aging-curses..." As she saw the startled expressions of her children she added "Relax, I was just joking. Don't worry about it."

But it had not been a joke. In the past, there were dark mages in Plegia who thought they could create a curse that would grant eternal youth, using the bones of young children. To Tharja's knowledge, none of these curses actually worked and had only resulted in an increase in the already high child-death quota of Plegia. Though in the end Tharja found it to be a better idea not to tell her children about that. It was because of people like these that dark mages had such a bad reputation.

Suddenly a provoking thought entered Tharja's mind. Since when did she care about the dark mage reputation? In the past, she had never been concerned about how dark magic was depicted outside of Plegia, in fact she relished in the fear that she saw in the eyes of other people whenever they found out that she practiced dark magic. Now that she thought about it, she probably wasn't completely innocent about giving dark mages a bad reputation herself.

And yet for some reason the thought that her daughters could get the wrong idea about dark magic felt like a slap to the face for her.
"Mama? Why did you stop reading?" Once again Tharja was forced out of her thoughts by her children. She had made a decision.

"I won't be reading you from this book anymore, because this story is idiotic and complete and utter Wyvern-dung." Noire and Morgan lowered their heads in disappointment. "Instead, I will tell you an accurate story about dark mages." Their faces lit up again. After Tharja got rid of the stupid story-book, she took a moment to think about how her story should begin. She wanted to tell a story that was a little closer to reality, so maybe it would be a good idea to take real events as an inspiration. With that, the dark mage started telling her children her own fairytale.

"Once upon a time, in a country ruled by a tyrannical leader there lived a young dark mage and her name was… uhm... Let's call her Sallya. Sallya had trained in the dark arts since her childhood and took great enjoyment out of perfecting her skills in hexes and curses. Day after day she would spend hours alone in her laboratory working on new spells and potions. To some this life would seem joyless, but to Sallya this was all she ever knew and it was all she ever needed. Or at least that is what she had thought…

But then a day came that would change Sallya's life forever. The ruler of the land, the cruel and incredibly ugly King Buttface wanted more troops for his army."

Morgan giggled childishly when she heard the name of the king, but Tharja continued without letting herself get interrupted.

"The poor Sallya was forced to fight as a soldier for her country. All of those battles seemed so senseless to her, she didn't care for any of them. She didn't want anyone to tell her what to do! Yet she didn't have any choice. As much has she hated the evil King Buttface, his troops were too powerful, trying to rebel was foolish.

But then one day a golden opportunity opened itself up for Sallya, as a prince with hair as blue as sapphire came to put an end to the king's tyranny. His name was Prince Dork and even though he was very naive and tended to rush into things without a plan, he also had a good heart. So, when he saw Sallya during battle, uninterested in the fight, he came up to her and spoke. You are a dark mage are you not? And yet you don't seem like you want to fight us. Why is that?

Sallya answered truthfully. I have no interest in fighting for a cause I don't believe in.

Prince Dork asked her: Then would you consider joining our team? We could use any capable soldier we can get.

Sallya was surprised that the prince would suggest her to switch sides. Confused, she asked him why he would trust an enemy soldier. But Prince Dork simply smiled at her naively and said. My sister would trust you and I try to be more like her. Not to mention that I always have to watch my back anyway. So, what do you say? Are you going to help us on our quest to defeat King Buttface?

Sallya thought about it for a moment, but it didn't take her very long to come to a conclusion. She hated working for the King and she wanted to decide to live her life how she wanted and not how some idiot on a throne commanded it for her. She decided that she would do it. She would betray her king and join the prince's forces.

For the time being, you can consider me your ally, Prince Dork. Tell me, who shall I hex first? She asked the prince, already feeling the adrenaline caused by rebelling against her country."

"Say Mama, is Sallya going to marry the Prince in the end?" Noire asked curiously, a part of her already hoping that her mother's story would have some kind of romance involved, as she liked romantic stories the most.

Tharja meanwhile, was disgusted at the mere thought of Noire's suggestion. "What?! Gods no! Don't make me vomit! Also, don't interrupt me! You will get all of your answers much quicker if you would just be quiet and listen."

After she got the horrendous mental image of Sallya and Prince Dork in a romantic relationship out of her head, Tharja continued her story: "Where was I? Oh, right. So Sallya was now a part of Dork's army and she had to find out that his army was pretty bizarre. A knowledge-obsessed scientist, a candy-addicted thief, a childlike dragon and an invisible knight were just a few of the many strange people she encountered among the soldiers. Sallya had expected that she wouldn't fit in with the others, but she had to realize that nobody here seemed like they truly fit in, which meant that, in a strange way, she never fitted better to a group of people.

But there was one person who caught Sallya's attention more than any other. A brilliant strategist with a heart of gold. A man capable of keeping a cool head even under the highest of pressures. And his name was Rob- …bert! Yes, his name was Robert.

Sallya was incredibly intrigued by him. Most of the people she knew were either smart, but mean-spirited or friendly, but idiotic. Yet Robert was different. He was clever and cunning, but he always kept a calm and welcoming demeanor around his friends. As Sallya watched him like this, she noticed a particular feeling growing inside of her heart. A strange feeling that she had never felt before. A feeling that…"

"Was she in love?!" Noire asked impatiently as ever, interrupting her mother once again. But this time Tharja didn't mind, as she smiled at her daughter with eyes filled with nostalgia and answered.

"Yes. I suppose she was…

Anyway, Sallya was unsure how she should deal with these new feelings, so she decided to watch Robert from the distance. With each passing day she learned more about him and her affection for the tactician grew. One day Robert noticed that Sallya was watching him. He was shocked and called her creepy and disturbing. This wasn't the first time someone has called Sallya disturbing, but it was the first time that those words actually hurt her. She didn't understand what she did wrong, she just wanted to help.
In the following days she tried her best to find the right way to win Robert's affection, but no matter what she did she failed.

That is until one day where she was following Robert around as usual, when suddenly he collapsed right in front of her eyes. Sallya was shocked and scared. Concerned, she rushed to the unconscious Robert. His forehead was boiling, but he was still breathing. Sallya's heart was beating twice as fast as usual and her mind was racing. It was clear that Robert was suffering from an intense fever, so she tried putting her magical knowledge to good use and concoct a cure for him. After about an hour of treating the unconscious tactician, Sallya felt like he would be okay and finally took a break to sit down and breathe for a minute. She watched over Robert for almost another half hour until he eventually regained his conscience.

When she noticed that he was awake, she was happy, but also a little scared. How would he react? Would he accuse her of putting him to sleep? Would he be disgusted by the thought that she had been so close to him?

But Robert didn't seem to think any of these things. Instead, he thanked her for helping him out and asked if she could stay for a while. Sallya was very confused by his behaviour. What has changed? Why was he not creeped out by her anymore? Was he so intrigued by her saving him from fever? Was he just being nice? Or was he…"

"Mama! When are you going to tell us how they defeated King Buttface? All this talking is boring!" Morgan shouted.

"Morgan, it's not nice to interrupt Mama." Noire scolded her sister, despite having done the exact same thing earlier. "Don't you see? Sallya and Robert are falling in love! I hope they married and find happiness together."

Tharja already liked Noire's taste in couples. Then again, Noire seemed to go through some kind of weird phase in which she saw any kind of romance as something incredibly beautiful, so was her approval really worth anything?
Meanwhile, Morgan seemed like any type of action or suspense would satisfy her. And even though Morgan had interrupted her very rudely, she was still kind of right. It was probably time to talk about how Robert, Sallya and Dork faced off against King Buttface.

"While Sallya was still thinking about her last encounter with Robert, Prince Dork's troops reached the Buttface-fortress. Thousands of enemy-soldiers already awaited them. Prince Dork drew his sword and started slashing through the enemy-lines. Robert used his magic tome to support his friend by shocking any adversary in sight with thunder magic. However, Sallya saw that Robert didn't notice an especially sneaky assassin who was ready to strike. In the blink of an eye Sallya threw herself between Robert and the assassin and took the hit for the person she loved. A sharp pain passed through Sallya's body as the blade cut the skin of her left arm. Despite her pain she managed to use her spellbook to finish off the assassin.

When Robert noticed what was happening, he rushed towards Sallya and asked her if she was okay. But Sallya simply replied: I am fine. I used Nosferatu on him, so my wounds are healed again. You don't need to worry about getting hurt anymore. I will protect you with anything I have and I can heal myself, so you don't have to worry about me either.

But Robert didn't seem pleased at all. What are you talking about? Of course, I will worry about you. Even if you can heal yourself, you still feel the pain of getting hurt. I don't want to see you suffer just to protect me.

But… Sallya tried to say something, but she was interrupted by Robert.

Just fight alongside me. We can do this together.

Sallya was mesmerized by his words. Her mind was racing, her blood was pumping and for a moment she forgot all about the war. After she managed calm herself, Sallya noticed that Robert was still looking at her and she nodded silently. She couldn't quite find the words to answer him, she just felt so happy."

Tharja took a moment to catch her breath. She had gotten much more into this story than she thought she would. Morgan looked already very sleepy, while Noire was still very much awake. Still, it was already late and she needed to come up with an ending. She had originally wanted to keep her story close to reality, but maybe she should just try to find a way to shorten her story a little and skip over some of the not so important aspects. Trying to get this over with quickly, she decided to continue her now much less reality-like story.

"King Buttface sent more and more troops their way, but thanks to Robert's brilliant strategies Dork's army managed to keep their pace towards the king. When the last soldiers fell King Buttface stood alone on the battlefield. He had no friends, no allies. It should have been easy to finish him off. But King Buttface had one last ace up his sleeve.

Ha! You think you have won? You haven't even seen my true power yet!
The king shouted. Then suddenly he started glowing with a purple light and his body began to grow. The villainous king turned into a demonic dragon! He was bigger than buildings and had teeth the size of a human.

Prepare to die foolish mortals! The dragon said with a grin on his face.

Dork's troops tried to fight him, but to no avail. No weapon did any damage and magic and arrows simply bounced off his scales. To make things even worse the dragon spoke an ancient magic spell and resurrected his fallen soldiers. They raised from the ground as undead warriors with glowing red eyes, ready to destroy anyone in their path. Everyone in Dork's army fought the risen enemies with great vigor, but the battle seemed hopeless with an invincible dragon as their opponent.

Even though the fighting was continuing loudly, Robert was lost in thoughts. Sallya did her best to keep all of the undead soldiers away from him, while he observed the dragon and tried to figure out a way to defeat him. Sallya trusted him to come up with a solution and it didn't take long for her trust in him to pay off.

I've got it! He suddenly shouted. The way he moves… It looks like he is trying to never show us his back, but I managed to get a glimpse of it. I think he has a weak-spot on the backside of his neck.

So, what should we do? Sallya asked.

I have a plan. And I'm going to need your help.

After Robert informed the others about his idea, they prepared to execute the tactician's plan.

Robert and Sallya combined their magical powers and shot a double Thoron directly at the dragon's face. Angered, he turned his head towards the two mages, ready to blast them with his fiery breath, when Robert shouted Now!

Prince Dork, who had taken a ride on the Pegasus of one of his friends, jumped down onto the dragon's back and pierced the demonic beast's weak-spot with his legendary sword. The dragon screamed in pain and fell to the ground with a loud bang. The undead soldiers turned into clouds of dust, confirming that the dragon light of life had been extinguished.

The dragon was defeated and the war finally ended. Even though she didn't want to admit it, Sallya was overjoyed to see the world return to its peaceful state. Prince Dork was crowned King Dork and he became a kind and benevolent ruler. Though, far more important was what happened to Sallya. She was questioning what she should do, now that the war was over, when she suddenly noticed that Robert was approaching her.

Hey Sallya, can I talk to you for a moment? He asked. I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your help and all the things you do for me.

There is no need for thanks, Robert. I'm just doing these things because I want to."

Tharja felt a little frustrated, because she couldn't find the words, that she needed to make this moment of the story as powerful as she wanted it to be. Trying her best to make recreate the emotional impact that she had once felt, she continued her story.

"Robert looked a little nervous, which made Sallya confused about what was going on.

Sallya, I'm just going to go out and say it. I think that I have feelings for you. That I like you more than usual. And this is why I want to give you this.

He kneeled down in front of her, holding a beautiful ring in his hand.

Sallya, will you marry me?

Sallya heart almost stopped when she heard those words. Was she dreaming? Was this really happening? Did Robert truly feel the same she did? She was so shocked she couldn't bring out a single word.

Sallya, are you okay? Do you need to sit down? Robert asked concerned.

Finally Sallya managed to stammer a sentence. I think I just time to need process what you said. It's so hard to believe that this is actually happening. This is too much at once.

It's okay, we don't have to rush this. We can take this relationship at whatever pace you are comfortable with. I just want to make you just as happy as you make me. Robert said to calm her down.

This still felt too much like a dream to Sallya, but she wanted it to be real so much.
She considered giving Robert a hug, but she was overwhelmed by the thought of having Robert watching her, while they were so close to each other. She decided to sneak behind him and hug his backside instead. Sallya felt more comfortable here, at least for now.

This feels nice… I think you already made me happier than I have ever been in my life.
Sallya said, while cuddling his back and smiled.

Knowing this makes me happier as well. I love you Sallya. Robert responded.

Three weeks later they were married and…"

But before Tharja could end her story, Noire finished her mother's sentence for her. "And then they lived happily ever after and they loved each other very much and they had ten kids!"

"Gods no! Two children are already more than enough work! But I suppose you got the rest pretty much spot on. They had a great life and they were very happy." Tharja said. She noticed that Morgan had dozed off during the ending and she hoped that Noire would soon do the same. "So, I told you a story, now you start sleeping, understand?"

"I really liked this story, mother. Do you think you can tell us next time what happened to Sallya and Robert after the war? They must have had even more adventures, right?" Noire asked curiously. She sounded a bit tired.

"Your father will be back by tomorrow. He can tell you your bedtime stories again."

"Maybe you can tell us stories together." Noire suggested and yawned loudly. Her tiredness finally seemed to be catching up with her.

Tharja took a moment to think about Noire's suggestion. Robin and her sitting in these cozy chairs, sharing stories and memories with their children. That actually didn't sound that bad. "Maybe… But only if you…" Tharja interrupted herself, when she noticed that Noire had already fallen asleep.

Now there was nothing holding her in the room anymore. She could just leave and finally work on some of her curses. Tharja briefly considered this, then she looked at the calm, peaceful faces of her daughters.

It was already very late… Maybe she would just stay here for a while and watch over her children. She still had time to work on her curses tomorrow.

Her daughters looked really cute when they slept. Just like their father…

Author's note: The story that Tharja tells is obviously based on the story from Awakening from her perspective, but the ending noticeably differs from the actual ending of the game. Mainly because Tharja didn't want retell the entire story of Awakening (and I didn't want to rewrite the entire story of Awakening either).

You may have noticed that the story from Morgan's fairy-tale-book is heavily inspired by the popular fairy-tale Hänsel and Gretel. However, there is a bit more to Ylissean version of the story. It was actually meant to be Anti-Plegia-propaganda that originated from the time when Chrom's father started a war against Plegia. Even though Ylisse and Plegia are now at peace, the children-stories from that time are still around. I didn't know how to incorporate this into the actual chapter, but it is supposed to be the fairy-tale's origin.

The one disadvantage of writing the relationship of Robin and Tharja from Tharja's perspective, is that it doesn't really allow me to explain the reasons why Robin fell in love with her, but I am planning to write a story that explores exactly that for the next capter.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Have a nice day. Bye!