Azura and Corrin - Azurrin


Bloodline


She remembers the moment vividly; the silent crunch of leaves under bare feet. It was a sound not so different than her own muted steps, but there were some minor adaptations to Azura's ballet. The intruder was a few inches shorter, which explained the slightly faster tempo of step, but not quite as flowing and reserved, which explained their weight. The newcomer had a crooked smile, greeting the songstress as she emerged from the treeline.

Corrin, she greeted. Or Princess Corrin, if that was any easier.

So that was her name. Corrin.

Well, Kamui now, she clarified.

Ah.

At least, Corrin was the name she was called by in Nohr. She much preferred 'Kamui' now, upon admission. She said she liked how it sounded off her tongue, and how everyone who called her by thus almost revered that moniker.

Twas a beautiful name, Azura replied.

And she sung a beautiful song, Kamui countered with a smile.

Azura nodded, humming the melody of her song a little before asking Kamui if she wanted to hear more.

Of course she would.

It captivated her. Calmed her. Almost felt like she was taking a nap, she admitted.

Azura remembers laughing, not so much at Kamui's reaction, but the irony of the situation.

Her song wasn't meant to be a lullaby. The singer would not utter the lyrics to bring forth the fall of dusk, hushing their audience to sleep. And yet, Azura recalled just how many times her mother sang that song to her as a young girl before she too finally submitted to her dreams.

Until one day, she was woken up to that hymn, instead of closing her eyes to the sounds of life beyond the shore.

When Arete gave Azura the pendant, she discovered just where the grey waves would lead.

She wished she could go back to sleep and forget. To dream.

But fate wouldn't allow that course to manifest, and Azura found herself orphaned in Hoshido, taken in by a family who claimed her only because they had kidnapped her. They would prod at her for a few days, maybe even try to like her. Make her feel... belonged.

They wouldn't ask questions.

Azura would never let the burden off her chest. It would stay there, maturing like a wine in the cellar, mirroring the secret's keeper. Soon, Azura found herself eye-to-eye with her sister Hinoka, though her build was certainly much slimmer. Her heart was definitely much heavier. Probably colder.

It pained her to bottle in the truth, but that made things easier to justify, somehow. She liked the thought of having a secret that no one else would ever figure out. At the same time though, she wanted someone to figure it out. She wanted a vent. Someone who she could share her own problems with.

Yes... the song was a nice lullaby, to those who didn't know its meaning.

Azura recalled, some time later, that Kamui wanted her advice. What would happen if she stayed in Hoshido? What would happen to her Nohrian siblings?

The songstress couldn't answer that honestly. No one in Nohr loved her. Hardly anyone knew her. At least she felt welcome in Hoshido, even if as a pilgrim on foreign soil.

Kamui sighed, only saying she needed some time to think. Time to reflect.


The moment she turned into a dragon, Azura felt something clawing at her chest. Looking at the pendant, she couldn't recall the last time it glowed like that when she wasn't singing. It didn't even shine that brightly when she traveled to Valla.

This verse was meant to herald the dawn. To wake. To inspire. Sing it only in times of uncertainty, when no one else knows the path to take. The pendant allows your voice to carry the warmth and presence of the first ray of sunrise, if ever you feel the need. And when you do feel its call, sing out. The day does not come silently - It arrives in a brilliant display of color and emotion. If you sing the song of dawn with a weak will, then so too shall be the morrow.

It didn't really hurt the first time.

Even when Kamui clawed a jagged gash that ran from her neck all the way to her sternum, Azura shrugged off the pain as best she could.

But after, the princess admitted she felt a bit woozy, even after Sakura cleaned up the mess. Of course, Kamui would ask if she was alright, which Azura nodded to.

Was she awake?

Most certainly. And so was Hoshido. The dream had been lovely, but now reality was setting in; Nohr wanted a war.

It needed a war.

And Hoshido needed their sunrise.

The golden blade hummed in Kamui's hand, as if it belonged there. Azura looked to her pendant, longing for that same harmonic resonance.

It never did.

Azura always wondered why Arete gave her the pendant. Was this world really in danger?

Perhaps. She never knew the stakes until her first dive into the Vallite abyss.

The pendant didn't need to hum for Azura to know she had to bear this burden alone.

When Kamui turned towards Ryoma and her Hoshidan family, Azura smiled just a little.

Perhaps the dawn would come after all. And it would be as piercing and radiant as her life would allow it to be. It had to be.


Weapon


It was a talisman, Azura explained, after piercing Garon's mind with her voice.

That time, it hurt a lot.

It glowed when she used her power. Every time she sung out, she explained, a little bit of herself, her essence so to speak, was transferred to the pendant she wore.

Apparently, her soul was blue.

Kamui didn't like this. They sat on the lake after the flee from Cyrkensia, both of their legs dangling in the rippling pool below.

The hero claimed that she could find another way. Surely they could win this battle through smiles and determination alone.

Azura merely nodded, pretending as if she believed that naive notion too.

She wondered what that would be like, she would admit. A way to put Anankos to rest without using his pendant.

There was another way, of course, but that involved letting the world fall to oblivion and opening the abyssal doors for the dragon. It also involved dying, so no, Azura laughed, they wouldn't head down that path.

Azura still didn't know what the piece of jewelry was good for, aside from acting as a conduit for her song. It was an arrow that had no clear target, but was ready to fire nonetheless.

And she could fire it at anything she needed to.

Our enemy thrives on conflict. If Hoshido and Nohr are at war when the stars align once more... I fear he will consume this world. That is why I wear this, and so too shall you, when the time is right. Through this pendant, you may empower our song, verse by verse. With each word the amulet hears, it takes a little bit of your life to amplify its power. No one has ever sung the full song in sequence... which is why we split it into four verses. The Song of Dawn, the Song of Dusk, the Song of Silence, and...

And what?

I... cannot tell you. Not even now. But I pray that this pendant does not take from you what it did from its last singer...


These were certainly end times. The stars would align a month. Maybe two. Hoshidan bows weren't quite strong enough to pierce dragonhide at the moment.

Thankfully, Nohrian plate mail was a little more vulnerable to their physical attack.

In the span of a few weeks, they were in the Fortress named Dragonfall. Its ancient walls contorted like a lung, ever compressing to the point of asphyxiation. Raijinto wouldn't pierce the old dragon's scales. Neither would the sacred bolts from Fuujin Yumi. And Yatogami, for all its prophetic claims to power, didn't even scratch the surface.

This time, the song nearly killed her.

It certainly felt like her time was short, anyway.

But, if things were going the way Azura hoped, her life was nearing its end.

Dragonfall was the dress rehearsal. Her blade was polished, ready to be drawn at any moment for its first and last duel with fate.

Garon would be her debut.


Bed


This time, she couldn't even feel her legs by the time she finished the song. But the dragon was still standing. Its piercing roar nearly overcame her voice, but she wouldn't give up so easily.

So she fell to her knees and sang it again, projecting her cry to the heavens. Her pendant shone like a beacon, revealing to all of Nohr that the dawn had finally come.

The second time she heralded the Dawn, even her knees began to tremble as more and more of her life was relinquished to power the pendant.

The third time around, she fell to her hands, struggling to sputter out the last few words before her lungs finally gave out. She fell to the ground, sweating, fading, but the dragon's fall was too loud to be ignored, even by her. Craning her head to the side, she watched as the dragon died first. At least fate was kind enough to let her see her success.

So this was it? Was crisis averted?

Yes.

So this was the purpose of the song. To save the world?

Not like she would live to see the difference, at any rate. Judging by everyone's smiles, maybe she did do her job.

It was safe. The world had been awoken, just as the pendant was made to do, after all. Just as she was destined to do.

It was a cruel fate to suffer, Azura realized just then.

Even as her legs vaporized to Vallite water, the pendant was nearly blinding by just how much of Azura's soul it had taken. Such a piercing shade of blue...

The last thing she remembered was Kamui's smile, tarnished only by tears. It was a beautiful thing to fall asleep to.

The bubbles faded, leaving nothing in their wake. Azura was gone. Her song had devoured her whole, and the pendant with it.


She woke up Arete in her throes, and the queen of Nohr frowned at her little girl's nightmare.

It happened again, Azura whined, and Arete smiled as she held the young girl closer on their bed.

The dragon got her in her sleep.

Garon was at Cheve, doing some sort of peace treatise with Sumeragi, Hoshido's king. Conveniently, Azura wanted to sleep with her mother.

Unfortunately, the nightmare didn't stop even with a Nohrian queen by her side.

Was it the one in the main hall of Krakenburg?

Mhm... It was a big black dragon and it dropped from above Father's throne... I tried to sing it away... but he kept getting closer. No matter how hard I sung the song, it... it didn't stop.

Was it the right verse? Maybe the dragon wanted to sleep, but you kept waking it up?

I-I don't know the Song of Dusk, Mommy... I only know how to sing the Song of Dawn.

I see... then I think it's time I gave you this.

B-but that's yours! You said...

Listen to me, Azura... when the dragon sleeps, he goes to a land that none of us know of except for Mikoto and I.

Mikoto?

S-she's... not here. But that's not the point, Azy... Here. Ah, it looks so beautiful on you, my daughter.

It's so... heavy?

Indeed it is. For such a small thing, it surely is worth its trouble when the time comes.

Does it do anything?

Aside from looking perfect around your neck? You'll see.


It was Corrin, the princess corrected.

Cor-rin.

Hm?

I know everyone calls me 'Kamui' but... I like Corrin more. Kamui doesn't feel... natural.

Very well, Corrin. I am Azura... a former princess of Nohr.

Funny, Azura thought. She looked more like a Kamui.

Corrin, Princess of Nohr.

That didn't sound right.


Role-Reversal


The song hurt.

Not quite what Azura had in mind when Arete had told her the pendant did things, but it did its job, at the very least.

Well, whatever the job was, Azura reminded herself. She just felt the urge to pacify the dragon rampaging in the square, and the pendant used something of hers to make her wish come true.

Corrin fell asleep in Azura's lap, the tantrums of a newly-born dragon finally quelled by Azura's lullaby.

Ryoma never saw Azura's song do that to anyone. It was amazing, he claimed.

Indeed, it was.

The pendant glowed a faint cerulean even as Corrin grumbled in Azura's lap, quivering and shivering like all baby-dragons did.

Azura giggled when the Nohrian stirred, scrambling to her hands and knees and asking if Azura was okay.

She had just been punched in the throat by a dragon the size of a house.

While having her soul being eaten away by the pendant around her neck.

All things considered, she would be fine.

She asked what would happen now.

Azura didn't know. She couldn't know. Something was biting at her, something faint. It was unclear, but she felt as if Corrin didn't belong here.

So she lied, saying that everything was going to be fine. A Nohrian army was coming in a few hours, and a Hoshidan one was being rallied in response.

Proceed carefully, but trust yourself, she advised, out of earshot of Ryoma.

Even when Corrin turned her back to everyone else, fading into the dusk with her Nohrian family, Azura found herself smiling in slight comfort.


If Hoshido and Nohr are at war... Anankos will rise.

M-mother? What's happening? Why are you... glowing?

Simple. I let my tongue slip. Pity. Do me a favor, Azy, and never say those words like I just did. They're... cursed. Anankos, Valla, well... you'll figure it out.

M-mom?!

Let's say I saw this in my dreams. Us Vallites have a... premonitive talent to our thoughts. That nightmare you had about the dragon in Krakenburg? It wasn't a fantasy. It was history. You must have seen a future or a past where Anankos rose.

What... whatshappening?

Listen to me, my Azy. Remember that pool of water in the garden? There's one like it in Hoshido, and a similar font at the Bottomless Chasm. On the other side of those surfaces... lies our true home.

What?

I love you.


Azura remembered the first time she entered the pool outside Shirasagi. It was all too weird, like she drank too much sake. But now? With a clear head and a questioning mind?

Perhaps...

She dove in once more, finally having the right mindset to understand the mystery of the world she felt so alone in.

Valla.

Anankos.

Kamui, heralding the dawn.

And all the death that came with it.

So this was the epilogue of the Song of Dawn.

Ah... no wonder it sounded wrong. Nohr didn't need to wake up.

Hoshido needed to go to sleep.

It came back to her in bits. The crystal she found at Valla's center fed her snippets of her adventure by Kamui's side. Not everything, but enough.

Enough to make her realize that she needed to head down a different path this time.

When the guards came to take her away to Fort Dragonfall, she came willingly.


Song


So, this was Cyrkensia.

And there was King Garon, waiting for a show.

The dancer clad in indigo, wearing a veil that did nothing to hide her distinctly blue hair gracefully stepped to her mark.

The mist danced at her fingertips.

And the song she sung held the hearts of her audience by a delicate string.

In one fluid motion, Azura cut it asunder.


This time, the pain almost felt good.

She watched as the empty king writhed in his chair, not used to hearing the song of his people in a land like this. Her veil hid her smirk, as slight as it was. Her pendant seemed to agree with her. It shone faintly, bringing the water from the Cyrkensian stage into her hands. After a while, they weren't just droplets of water. They were dancers in her ballet of revelation.

What pleasure she felt vanished when she realized she had just doomed nearly every Nestrian singer in the vicinity.

And just like that, Azura lost.

Once more, innocent blood was on her hands.

As if the exeunt of Charlotte, Benny, the Rainbow Sage, Keaton, Kaze, Lilith, Arthur, Effie, Elise, Lazward, Peri, and Xander on her first performance wasn't enough, now she had had lost the souls of an entire city.

The dancers of Cyrkensia, slain by Nohrian blades. Among them was Layla, the dancer whose performance Azura had usurped to stage her attack. She wanted to see her mother, she said... Now both were dead.

Then it was Cheve.

Orochi and Reina, dead.

Scarlet, dead.

The Rainbow Sage, smiling even as he ended his own life to protect Corrin from his former student, Garon.

Kaden, dead, laying in an undignified pile of his slain tribe.

Even when Azura brought Corrin with her to Valla, revealing the true face of Garon, she felt as if she had made the wrong choice. Would she get another chance to redeem herself? To save this world without dooming those within?

Lilith, dead, again.

Hana and Subaki, dead.

Takumi, dead.

Oboro and Hinata, dead.

Saizo.

Kagero.

Ryoma.

Takumi once more.

And finally... her.

This time, the pain was fleeting.

Azura faded, not even bothering to see whether her song had done its intended purpose.

There had to be another way... If only...


Rain


Another bad dream?

It'll be fine, mother. I'm brave...

Oh, you poor thing, trying to handle your demons with a straight face. Will you not hold me? There we go... much better.

I don't understand them, mama... First, a dragon, then a demon. Why are so many scary monsters trying to attack me? What's next?

What next indeed? Little Azy, do you know the Song of Silence?

I know the Dusk and Dawn verses. What more could this song do? I still don't know what dragon there is that this song can wake him up or put him to sleep. Why do I need to know this?

Sometimes... the world just needs to stop. Stop everything, and simply listen.


She didn't sing hard enough, she cursed. There were still a few that had died in her stead.

Granted, she could count the dead with her right hand, but that was still few too many.

Scarlet, for all of her seemingly insignificant relevance, was dead.

Izama, dead.

And Anankos. He... he could've been saved too. Dragons weren't so different than humans. They could both be redeemed.


The pendant? It's a piece of jewelry that my mother gave me before she died, Azura explained one day after the war. The Queen of Valla nodded as she sat in her chair, feet casually up on her table as she read another document from her brother explaining some trade agreement or something like that.

Does it do anything? I mean, besides what we've seen it do? And even that explanation is a bit... vague. Is it controlled by you?

My mother said to throw it away once I knew that everything is in order. I don't question it.

Which doesn't answer the question of why its still on your neck.

How many people died, Corrin? Our war to save our home... to bring Anankos peace. How many lives did we have to commission to the stars?

...Too many.

Exactly. What if I told you that if I told you of a story where you sided with Hoshido or Nohr, and still managed to bring about peace?

I wouldn't believe you. How many more would have died?

I would, for one. And I think I know what I must do now.

What are you doing?

Singing, what else?

Doesn't the song hurt?

It does. Every word rakes ribbons across my back, seething my flesh and killing my nerves one by one.

Then why...

Because I'm going to try this... one more time. Or ten. Or a hundred. I'll save everyone, eventually. Even if I have to spend all of eternity doing it. And even if I forget what happened the time before, I'll get it right, somehow. Don't... forget me.

This time, Azura didn't vaporize into mist. She descended like rain. Not to illuminate the land, not to darken it either.

But to cleanse it.


So, she sang.

She begged the amulet to give her another chance. If she was going to save this world, then her life and her life alone would be the first and last that fate would claim.

No more, and no less.


Story


6 years after the murder of King Sumeragi and the kidnapping of Princess Kamui of Hoshido

"What are you reading, milady? Er... sorry if I'm being rude."

Azura turned to see one of the Hoshidan villagers, a newcomer from a border conflict, she claimed, walking slowly to her and bowing at the appropriate distance.

"It's, nothing, really, Māku," Azura admitted, her pale blue hair dancing around her body as she rose from the grass along the river. "Just a novel from..."

Valla.

On her first visit, Azura was lost in the Invisible Kingdom, but something was urging her to keep trying. Whenever she waded in the river, it was as if her pendant wanted her to go in deeper. To witness Valla once more. So she did. Luckily, she found herself in the same place and immediately began to chart out maps and acquire landmarks as to not get lost again. It came naturally, oddly enough. As if... she had been here before.

On her fourth visit, Azura found a crystal. An odd, pale thing, it hummed in her hand and was surprisingly cold to the touch. When she put it against her chest, though...


Of Birthrights and Love...


The memories hit her all at once. The tale of Princess Kamui and her best friend Princess Azura, defending their homeland from Nohrian invaders. Ultimately, their story ended in the latter's death and the defeat of Nohr. Or so she thought.

The Verse of Dawn's price, Azura realized just then, was not her life. Any Vallite could sing the song, if they were of Cadros' lineage. But if they did... the cost wasn't that they would cease to exist...

They would cease to be remembered.

Azura never died, the day King Garon fell to Kamui's Yatonokami. She succumbed to her dreams, and woke up in her mother's arms; the same Azura, none the wiser of what she had just been through. What had seemed like a nightmare... the fighting, the dragon? That was just her past life, culminating with her death in the arms of a fellow Vallite.

But that reality was very much real. Azura had faded from a world where she had heralded the dawn.

And no one except Kamui, the fellow Vallite, would remember them.


Of Conquest and Fate...


The Pendant used her mind to subject its will. It all made sense now. The Pendant of Anankos could be used to manipulate its wearer's thoughts into reality, at the cost of everyone else's memories of the person. The more powerful the bearer's will, the less space in the history books they would occupy.

Until they faded altogether.

After the Nohrian and Hoshidan war, many historians speculated whether Azura had actually existed or not. After Corrin's death, the consensus was that she was an ideal, a manifestation of Corrin's fighting spirit. There was no Azura, the texts would say. Corrin had fought alongside her Nohrian siblings to overthrow King Garon.

The myth of Princess Azura of Nohr?

She never existed.


Of Silence and Blood...


This time, Azura never faded. She didn't need the full power of Anankos' Pendant because Corrin had the Fire Emblem, an even more powerful relic than the necklace Azura wore. And thus, the Dragon of Silence, Anankos, was erased from Valla and the country was restored to its former dignity. In the days that followed, Azura wrote three books, all three of which were secured by the Royal Vallite Library for archival and copying. The official texts disappeared one day, but historians agreed the three books were inspirations of Azura's imagination. Not quite what she had in mind when she frantically copied down the events of her dreams.

Birthright.

Conquest.

Revelations.

Three books that documented realities that the land had forgotten, but Azura had somehow remembered.

And now? Azura found herself reading them once more.


Shepherd Camp, the morning after Robin was rescued


"Princess Azura, do you have a moment?"

Azura opened her eyes to see Morgan peeking into her tent, smiling as lightly as usual.

"Why hello there, Morgan. It's been a while since we've talked."

"Indeed it has!" Morgan replied, closing her eyes with a sweet smile. Behind her, Azura spotted Robin waving behind his daughter's silhouette.

"Well, is she decent?" she heard him whisper.

"I think," Morgan yipped back, before turning back to the songstress. "We... we have a couple questions."

Azura yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, looking at Robin and Morgan in fake annoyance before nodding, sitting up and adjusting her nightgown that was nearly slipping off her shoulder.

"Geez, your hair is a mess," Morgan mused, earning a scoff from both Robin and Azura.

"Be nice," Robin hissed.

"Rough dreams?" Morgan asked, more polite this time. Azura nodded.

"This sort of outdoor life does not agree with me, I suppose. But if it means that we save the world, I suppose it is a small price to pay."

Robin allowed himself in, keeping eye-contact with Azura just in case he was intruding. When no complaint came, he sat down on Corrin's old bed and took out his notebook slowly.

"I... I want to talk about your song... and your pendant."

The Vallite looked at it dangling along her chest, and she held it lightly in her hand.

"You... can. What... do you need to know?"

This time, Robin smiled and he looked at Morgan as he held her shoulder lightly. Understanding his gesture, she closed Azura's tent and cast a spell that soundproofed the small room. Instantly, the chirping, the chatter, the clanging... they all became muffled nuances in the faint void of silence. Only the sound of Azura's racing heartbeat could be heard.

"What's going on?" Azura wondered, not sensing any ill-intent from the two but not entirely comfortable either.

"Just a quick Q and A, my beautiful Princess," Grima assured, revealing his slight fangs and the piercing red of his eyes, having glimmered from their usual grey. "Please, don't be alarmed. I don't bite."

"W-what?"

"We're not gonna hurt you," Morgan assured, glaring at Grima and keeping her distance for emphasis. "Just answer our questions honestly, please, and we'll plan things from there."

"You haven't asked anything, yet," the Vallite whispered.

"I know, and I apologize. So, question number one," the Dragon of Death began, looking at Azura for any trace of faltering. When none came, he continued.

"Say someone of Vallite and Dragonic descent sang the Verse of Awakening. Someone like... Morgan, for instance. Say that she knows the words, and wears the Anankosian Pendant that you're holding on to..."

Azura paled, feeling her fingertips chill as the pendant began to glow, a faint red, this time.

"W-what are you..."

"She's a dragon, as you can tell. Even more than Corrin. Most of us don't know this yet, but I, er... Robin, actually, has a special kind of blood as well; he isn't as human as we believe..."

"Y-you're not fading... The curse..."

"I'm immune to it, the Dragon that I am," Grima announced, warning Azura and Morgan not to follow his lead. "Try not to commit likewise. But I digress."

"You, are the ocean's gray waves..." Azura sang quickly, causing Grima to fall to a knee in pain.

"O-ow... stop that! Hey! Urgh..."

With a surprised gasp, Grima fell to the ground, stunned by Azura's song. Turning to Morgan, Azura quickly flourished her lance and pointed it at the young girl, who only stared blankly at her in surprise.

"Tell me what's going on. Where's Corrin? Where's Robin?!"

Instead, Morgan's eyes widened as she pieced together's Azura's appearance in her fragmented memories.

"That song... you sung... that's the lullaby I remember! That's the song I'm supposed to sing... to kill Dad."


AN: What's this? an actual plot? Ah yes it is! This began as a thing for Azurrin week, but I decided to use this as my oppurtunity to explain a little more backstory of the Fates/Awakening universe I created.

I may be spoiling DLCs to you guys, but when Shigure sings the fourth verse, it is at the cost of everyone's memories.

I may be going off on a tangent, but I'm assuming the other three verses require that same price. Thus, Azura does not actually die in Conquest and Birthright, but instead remembers those moments, and guides Corrin on the third path of Revelation.

Of course, I still don't know why they had to kill off people in that path, so now Azura will need the fourth verse of Awakening (Crossovers) if she wants to dethrone Grima and Anankos.

And I'll be explaining later how Morgan knows the song too. Hint, look at who Azura talks to near the end.


AN2: My English has gotten tremendously better over the span of this story, but as far as native speakers are capable of, I don't think I'm quite at that point. Conveniently, a FF writer by the name of Tolitir has offered to Beta for me, so expect this story to get a lot cleaner as far as grammar and punctuation are concerned.

Plot may still be a jumbled mess, due to me kinda making it up as I go along and just taking good notes, but at least none of it will be lost in bad translation.

Also, I'm almost done drawing Azura splitting the sea! It's looking really good!