Morgan = Maura= Dark
Maura sat herself into the expansive dining room of the fortress, long tables fit for banquets bare and empty because of how few people lived in the fort, slumping down, still tired from the night before. For the short week that Maura has lived in the fortress, she had already began to pick up on the personalities of the various people. A small clink from across the table had captured her attention, and she looked up groggily, only to see Gunter lifting a cup to his lips, a young silver haired butler awaiting his reply. The cup had barely poured any of its contents into the knight's mouth when he had put it down, disgust across his face.
"The tea is cold and bitter, Jakob"
"Just like you, old man." Jakob huffed. Jakob was a strange one to describe, despite his lack of skill as a butler, he acted extremely arrogant and rude to almost everyone, but was incredibly polite to Lady Kamui, and her only. I think I remember Father saying that Frederick was the same way towards him when he first joined the Shepherds, only acting nice towards Chrom and Lissa. I think he almost murdered Virion. Come to think of it, Mother was also the same way, I think the only ones besides Father that she got along with was maybe Nowi and Libra? And even then that's pushing it. She also tried to murder Virion too, but that's unrelated.
Maura was pulled out of her doldrums when Lady Kamui sat down in the chair beside her, looking similarly tired, with one cheek glowing bright red in a distinct hand mark. When a certain pink haired maid came right next to them, similarly glowing red, spouting gibberish, Maura began to put two and two together as a cold chill began to fill the room, much to everyone's annoyance.
"LadyKamuiI'msosorryIcouldn'tthinkofanotherwaytowakeyouupItriedshakingyouandeverythingandyoudidn'tevenreactI'msorryIwon'tdoitagainpleasedon'ttellFloraorGuntermaybeGunterbutespeciallynotFlora." The blushing maid spoke far too quickly for Maura to understand, so she looked over to Lady Kamui questioningly.
"I didn't want to get up, so someone thought it would be a good idea to freeze me!" Lady Kamui glared at Felicia as she spoke. So the hand mark on her is from the cold, better than what I thought at first.
"To be fair, one time a friend of mine punched the commander in the jaw in an attempt to cheer him up." Maura shrugged her shoulders, knowing how Lady Kamui was going to react.
"Tell me, tell me, tell me!" One of the many things Maura had picked up about Lady Kamui, was that because she wasn't allowed to leave the fortress, she loved hearing stories from the outside world, especially Maura's.
"Not much to tell, a mission went poorly, some people we knew died, and the commander was depressed, she punched him." Maura spoke very matter-of-factly, before going into her own thoughts again. Come to think of it, Felicia sort of reminds me of Sumia in a way, maybe it's just because she's also clumsy. Ice magic was a surprise, though. Definitely not sleeping in again after the first time that Flora froze my blankets.
As if reading Maura's thoughts, the blue-haired maid walked up, tray with breakfast in hand. "Come to think of it Maura, I didn't wake you up today. And you were up before me, what time did you wake up?" Flora put the tray down in front of Maura, who grabbed a biscuit before answering.
"Well, about 5 o'clock, I think…" Maura looked to a clock perched on the wall. "Maybe four."
Upon hearing Maura's answer, Flora became curious. "4 o'clock? In order to be up that early, you would have had to go to bed pretty early." Flora began to pull away the tray of food, not allowing Maura to get any more.
"I went to bed around my normal time." Maura shrugged, once again shifting her eyes to the clock.
"Which is?" Flora continued to pull the tray away.
"Around midnight? I don't know, you don't really look at a clock when you go to sleep, right?" Maura weakly defended herself. Here comes the cold wave. Why is it that they freeze literally everything when they feel strong emotions?
"Only four hours?! What were you even doing in the time you were awake?!" A wave of cold air spread throughout the room, causing Lady Kamui to hiss in annoyance and steal the tray of food Flora left unguarded before leaving the banquet hall.
"Figuring out the layout of the fortress, trying to figure out how to get back to my room, trying to thaw my bed, the usual." Maura shrugged, half-jokingly before another wave of cold hit her. Not in the mood for jokes, at this rate everyone in the room is going to get hypothermia.
"You can find out how to get around during the day, you should be sleeping at night." Flora hissed, sliding the tray of food back at Maura rather violently, a thick layer of frost covering the surface. And now my food is frozen, I really need to be careful with how I act around these two, or at least Flora.
As Flora stormed off to prepare trays of food for the other people in the room, Maura subconsciously drank from her glass of milk, only for her lips to touch frozen cream. "I've heard of ice-cold milk, but this is taking it a bit too far." Maura joked, causing the shivering Kamui to let out a giggle, despite her re-freezing. Passing on her frozen breakfast, Maura excused herself from the dining hall once Flora came back with trays of food for everyone else and herself. Maura wandered through the labyrinthian halls, turning on instinct, walking the path as if it were her thousandth, despite the short time she had to learn the layout. Left, right after three doors. It's so much easier to navigate when I can see.
Before long, Maura was in the large open field, staring up at the overcast sky that loomed over the entire country. I'm not sure what's worse, a never-ending storm, or these depressing clouds. Maura didn't even register when Gunter walked out and joined her, staring sullenly at the gloomy weather. Breaking the silence, Gunter spoke up, startling Maura. "I overheard your conversation with Flora." The stern knight didn't remove his eyes from the pale sky above them.
"I know she means the best, but I've never really been able to sleep very well. Too many thoughts, and the dark only makes them worse." Maura breathed, cold air filling her lungs. "After a while, I've simply learned to live with it, working at night until I eventually fall asleep. Needless to say, I've gone through a few too many sleepless nights and even more nights asleep at the war table, drooling over maps and notes." Where am I going with this? Why do I feel so comfortable telling him all this?
"Hardly healthy for a girl your age." Gunter spoke, not an accusation, only an observation. His eyes gently rested on Maura's face.
"Wouldn't recommend it for someone your age either." Morgan joked, before looking back to the sky.
After a few moments Gunter spoke up again, "Most people think that once war is over, a soldier should be able to sleep easier, but in most cases it's the exact opposite. I couldn't begin to tell you how many nights that one of my fellow men or I have spent questioning our actions in battle."
"I guess the two of us have seen more than our fair share of war." Maura sighed.
"But we must march onwards." Gunter breathed, as if rehearsed.
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Maura closed her eyes, picturing the Shepherds in her mind.
The two sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the cloud slowly become lighter in color as the sun came up behind them. Gunter eventually cleared his throat, pulling Maura from her doldrums. "Maura, you've yet to find yourself a job in the Fortress yet, correct?"
"You already know the answer, I only just got here." Maura smirked, "I'm dying of boredom, what do you have in mind?"
"You're well aware that I'm in charge of Lady Kamui's training, yes?" Gunter asked.
"You want me to try teaching her magic?" Maura guessed.
"Eventually, if she shows interest, but not yet. I want you to take care of Lady Kamui's education." Gunter's sudden request confused Maura.
"Doesn't she already have teachers? Besides, I've only just gotten here, I'm not sure if I'm in a good position to teach her anything about Nohr." Maura barely got through the sentence without stuttering.
"Her previous instructors, well to put it bluntly, grew tired of how determined she was to avoid her classes. I suppose she doesn't take kindly to sitting still and studying. She's at that age, I guess." Gunter sighed. Maura could only picture Lady Kamui hiding from her teachers in one of the countless hiding place scattered throughout the fortress.
"So you think she'll listen to me?" Maura stifled a laugh, "I know I haven't exactly been here long, but I can tell, when Lady Kamui puts her mind to something, there's no changing it."
"And that intuition is why I think you'll figure something out. And if not, I know you can't really quit." Gunter smiled.
"That better have been a joke." Maura stalked off to the makeshift practice grounds that Gunter used for training, and picked up a practice sword, holding it in her hand naturally. "It's been awhile since I really practiced my swordplay." She shrugged off the large coat covering her and walked over to one of the few training dummies, and settled into her stance, sword at her side. She began taking swings at the dummy, slamming the wooden blade into the straw human.
Maura lost track of time in her practice and only realised how long she'd been at the field when she heard the dull thud of daggers hitting wood. Maura glanced over to see Jakob attempting to hit a target with his knives. So Jakob is trying to learn to use daggers, I suppose they would come in handy as a butler. Easy to hide, accurate enough to protect the liege, light as to not interfere with work. Maura watched Jakob for a bit, as he threw the daggers at the target, landing on the outer ring or flying off into the dirt. Eventually Jakob turned around and gave Maura an icy glare befitting an angry Flora. "Do you mind?"
"Not at all, I just haven't seen anyone throw daggers around before, so I'm watching to see how I could use it in strategy." Maura shrugged nonchalantly, as if Jakob wasn't trying to burn her with his eyes.
"You could watch Felicia instead, I'm sure you'll get much better results watching her, assuming you aren't injured in some mishap." Jakob spat.
"I mean, I wasn't interrupting anything, and you were already here. I didn't really see the need to startle Felicia by suddenly asking her if I could watch her practice." Maura leaned her heels, looking away innocently. "Besides, I thought I could help."
"Please. How could you help? You just admitted that you haven't seen daggers in combat. You have no basis for comparison." Jakob spoke bitterly.
"You're right, but I have done archery, and I'm an expert in magic. Ranged combat is very similar regardless of weapon. From watching you I can tell how I can help fix your stance and aim." Maura smiled, only for Jakob to snort in amusement.
"Fine then, humor me. What exactly am I doing wrong?" Jakob backed away from his location, handing Maura the dagger in his hand.
"Well, I can't help exactly, but..." Maura pulled herself into the stance Jakob was using earlier, albeit more comfortable, "First off, you're too stiff, I understand that you're a butler, but on the battlefield you have to be loose. Everything has to be one smooth motion, think about a stream of water, with the exception of any Ice Tribe members, it flows smooth everywhere, not rough in some spots and smooth others."
"You do realise what rapids and currents are right?" Jakob interrupted.
"My example still works, just picture it in your head." Maura huffed before continuing her lecture "After that you concentrate on your target and focus. Then…" Maura trailed off to emphasize her point and tossed the dagger, letting it sink into the target's inner ring with a satisfying thunk. Not bullseye, but I think I proved my point. Maura looked at the dagger imbedded in the target with a satisfied look and smiled. "Better than I thought, I don't know how to hold a knife when it's thrown."
"Fine, loosen my stance and aim, if necessary picture a flowing river, now if you don't mind I'd like to practice in peace." Jakob walked to the target and tugged the dagger from its location in the target and shooed Maura away. Maura made sure to grab her coat before she left,watching Jakob practice some more, attempting to follow Maura's advice. Maura chose to ignore the grumbles she heard Jakob mutter under his breath.
Once Maura was back inside, she finally began to feel fatigued from her exercise and looked up to the clock. Three o' clock, didn't realise I was practicing that long. I suppose it makes sense that Jakob is away from his chores for now, they must already be done cleaning up after lunch. Upon the thought of lunch, Maura's stomach began to growl. I don't think that they'll appreciate it if I were to walk into the kitchen, so I'll just see if i can read to take my mind off of hunger. Maura wandered her way toward the fort's library and sat down with a random tome she pulled off of the shelves without looking at the title. She quickly became engrossed in the fantasy novel that she had selected, knights of valor against an evil demon. She barely registered when Kamui walked into the room, placing a similar novel onto a nearby shelf and slumping down onto the chair across from Maura, watching the mage closely. Maura looked up from her paragraph to give the ebony haired child a small smile. "Is something wrong?" Maura asked with a small laugh at the small pout across Kamui's face.
"Aren't you hungry? I can't go to dinner without a snack, but you skipped breakfast and lunch." Kamui asked, only to be answered by Maura's stomach growling comically loudly.
"I guess that's why I'm here, isn't it? All my problems always seem a mile away whenever I've got my nose in a book, as cheesy as it sounds. Keeps my mind off things I guess." Maura shrugged, as Kamui nodded vigorously.
"I know what you mean, sometimes when I'm reading, I imagine that I'm out there, having adventures, not trapped in this empty fort." Kamui pouted slightly before seemingly realising something. "I mean, I love everyone here, but I just want out, you know?"
"More than you know, perhaps not from personal experience, but definitely have spoken with people about the same thing." Maura's mind drifted to Tiki, who was required by her duty, and her own safety, to stay within the temple at the top of the Mila Tree. Her eyes eventually drifted to Kamui who was looking at Maura expectantly. "Oh fine, I'll tell you a story."
"Yes!" Kamui cheered in her seat before quickly quieting down and focusing on Maura's face, awaiting the tale.
"One of our allies in one war, was seen as a prophet of sorts by the locals, she was called the Voice."
"'The Voice'? That's a weird name."
"Her name wasn't actually 'The Voice', it was simply her title, same way as you are a Princess of Nohr." With the explanation Kamui's face held a look of understanding, and Maura continued. "She was thought to be a prophet because she was a manakete, a powerful race that can turn into dragons with special stones. They live for about the same time as dragons too."
"You aren't making this up are you?" Kamui pouted.
"Of course not, manaketes are very real, but there are very few of them. However, Dragonstones are far more common and are sometimes used to make jewelry. In the course of my travels I've met three manaketes. But the Voice wasn't allowed to leave her temple which was built into the top of a giant tree, not exactly a place you'd go to visit." Maura stretched her legs asa silent explanation, which Kamui thankfully understood. "Because of that, the Voice was very lonely and longed to be able to leave her temple, but couldn't lest the people worry what happened to their link to the gods."
Kamui looked into empty space with a quiet "oh", as she absorbed the information given to her.
"Sorry, you were probably hoping for a more pleasing story, not a sad tale." Maura looked down at her legs.
"No, you really just have war stories, right? So they won't exactly be happy most the time. I still like to hear them." Kamui gave Maura a big grin as she looked back up. "You said she lived in a tree? That sounds awesome, think we can make one? A treehouse, big enough for us to live in?"
Maura perked up at Kamui's optimism, and the smile on her face was infectious." Maybe once you're allowed out of this dull fort, we'll be able to. I don't think any trees would grow big enough in the courtyard."
"Yeah, I guess so, Gunter's really big and heavy." Kamui laughed, before leaning onto the table between the two of them.
"Speaking of Gunter, he was telling me about your studies." At the mention of her studies, the pink in Kamui's face clearly wasn't from laughter anymore.
"All the teachers that they've brought in have been so stuffy, every single one of them said something along the lines of 'Prince Leo wasn't this troublesome' before quitting." Kamui lowered her voice in a mocking tone imitating the teachers and Maura could clearly picture Laurent or his mother becoming annoyed by the girls antics. "I'm probably just gonna scare off the next one too."
"Well, I'll make it pretty difficult for you to scare me off." Maura laughed as Kamui slowly realised what Maura had claimed, her face turning a few shades darker pink.
"Wait, you're gonna be my new teacher?" Kamui's face was now turning red, and Maura was half expecting her to cry.
"Yep, don't know how, I'm certainly not certified or anything, but I think I understand what I need to do. " Maura shrugged. "Gunter kinda forced the job on me, so I took it out on training dummy or two." Maura looked to the sable-haired girl with a small smile, only to see her face was clearly pale. Despite herself, Maura began laughing at the energetic princess's scared face. By the time Maura was able to catch her breath again, Flora was in the doorway, eyebrows quirked at the scene.
"I came to say that dinner is ready, but first, care to explain what's happening?" Flora asked, only out of necessity, apprehension dripping in her voice.
"I'll explain later, I think if I go into detail, Lady Kamui might have a heart attack. Plus Felicia is gonna want to hear this." Maura wheezed, before breaking into another fit of giggles."Now let's go, I'm starving."
Maura practically inhaled her food, much to the annoyance of her more refined co-workers, and they took little time to ridicule her on manners.
"There's no need to forget manners, no matter how hungry you are." Flora's voice ridiculed Maura, who wasn't really paying attention.
"To be fair sis, she didn't really eat all day." Felicia spoke out as she pulled another empty plate out of Maura's way.
"A habit that she shouldn't be getting into if she wants to do her job correctly." Jakob hissed, when Maura finally looked up, sauce dripping from her chin.
"Not my fault breakfast got frozen, and I normally have some kind of snack with me when I skip lunch." Maura shrugged, before piling more food in her mouth.
"Regardless, you are a royal retainer, and as such, you must keep up certain appearances, lest it reflects poorly on our liege." Gunter reprimanded, only to get a few chuckles out of Maura. I wish Prince Xander luck then, with a flirt like Laslow as his new retainer.
"I know how to act when appearances matter, I just don't like being completely stiff at all times, makes it hard for me to get to know the people around me." Gunter legitimately looked surprised at Maura's eventual answer. "Rule Number Three as a tactician; know the people around you, their personalities, their reasons for fighting, the way they act in battle. A good tactician is going to know how everyone will react when in battle, and be ready to act on those reactions at a moment's notice." Maura autonomously recited the quote, as if it explained everything. By the time she finished, everyone at their small table was looking at Maura, with various emotions surrounding their faces. Gunter seemed pleased with how Maura had her own code to follow, like any knight does, Jakob was incredulous at the way Maura didn't even think about the words as she said them, Flora was still somewhat annoyed with Maura, but had a bit of respect for the tactician's words, Felicia and Kamui both were looking at Maura astoundedly, like she revealed the secrets of the world.
Maura began to feel embarrassed at all the attention and pushed away from the table, deciding she was done with dinner. Wordlessly she began to walk off, leaving her new allies in silence. Once she got to her room she slumped down on the bed and pulled a book from one of the many pockets in her coat, letting her eyes fall on the title, Tactics of the Herd. With the books in her hand she slowly began to drift off into sleep, letting darkness overtake her thoughts.
Author's Note: Chapter 4: Complete!
I've got a few ideas on what I want to do for the next few chapters, and I've slipped a few ideas for later chapters in here, as for how Maura's adjusting... Well, at this point, only Felicia and Kamui have really warmed up to her, Gunter is getting there, but not quite. I kinda want to break a few Fire Emblem rules here, namely allowing Maura to use swords even though her official class is Dark Mage. I'm not even going to try to justify it, because my only real argument is that Iago can use staves and Divine Weapons keep getting added to Royal's inventory even when they are in a different class(Such as Takumi constantly having Fujin Yumi when he's a Swordmaster in my current file), I just want to do it because it's more fun to write the mixed-up fighting style than just a tome.
As for the "Rule Number Three" that Maura mentioned, that's not something I made up on the spot, I've got many "rules" written down somewhere(need to find that) and I will be sneaking them in here and there.
And for Maura being Kamui's teacher, that was sorta an idea I liked, Kamui hating learning, only for her to be a star student when Maura is teaching her. We'll see if it ends up going well, I'm not entirely sure.
As always, comments feedback and reviews are extremely appreciated.