A/N:
So, I decided to go with another tie-in piece to my one-day-will-be-published-when-I-start-writing-it-again-after-my-teachers-stop-being-Nazis FE7 story, Tales of the Blades.
I don't own it - but damn I wish I did. Because if I did, then the remake of Shadow Dragon wouldn't have sucked so bad. And Legault and Heath would have gotten a canon ending, because they are so blatantly an epic pair that to say otherwise is just plain silly. (heart)
Ah well, enough of my babbling - here's the first chapter. I've got maybe 3 or 4 planned depending on how far I wanna go with it. Enjoy! ^_^
Echoes
The rolling fog across the twisted, gnarled trees and brush of that damned forest should have been everyone's clue.
Amyra, still filling her duties as tactician despite now actively fighting as the heir and commander of the Bladerunners, tried to keep everyone close together.
Two members of the large group were doing their best to avoid one another.
Amyra chanced a glance at her elder brother beside her. As she thought, he was still being stubborn. Matthew, like his younger sister, was stubborn to a fault when he felt he was right. A fight with Guy had resulted in the two lovers no longer speaking.
Further behind her was Guy, eyes red from a night of tears. His long silken mane was untidy in its traditional braid, and he seemed as though his young heart was miles away.
Evaio had an arm around his cousin's shoulders, trying to comfort him and turn his thoughts away from the previous argument and towards the battle to come. The war with Nergal would require every single blade they possessed to be poised and steady. In his current state of mind, the Kutolah youth was anything but.
The fight had been coming from the beginning. Everyone who knew the cheeky Ostian spy and the fiery headed Sacaean was aware of the thin strand from which the relationship hung. Two free spirits, both bound by a now-faded and worn piece of parchment. The oathpaper had become symbolic of everything between them.
Guy could not understand why Matthew tormented him so much. The spy had teased him, stolen from him, and driven him near mad with his abuses for the better part of a year now. It was not until Amyra and the others worked their hardest that he understood how Matthew worked. He liked him underneath it. He truly did. Matthew had finally opened up about his feelings under Guy's insistence after a particularly tricky battle.
And Guy had never been so happy as the day Matthew told him he cared. The two were already tent-mates, but the nights were now spent blazing between the sheets, Guy in complete ecstasy as Matthew's nimble fingers and intense flexibility brought out feelings in him he hadn't realized possible. The younger man, having never fallen in love before, believed that these days by one another's side, and nights in each other's arms would never end.
There is no such thing as a happily ever after for a warrior. None at all. This cold fact had come to the myrmidon as harsh and fast as a moth's wings were taken by flame.
His life with Matthew was happy, even though the thief sometimes got on his nerves. They were a pair, and there were far more smiles than tears.
Until that bitch had returned. The one unspoken wall between them, holding them back at the heart despite the abandon with which they offered up their bodies to one another.
Leila.
Matthew had loved her from their youth together. He had always waited and let his heart be led around while she flirted and flounced from boy to boy throughout the castle and town. And yet he waited for her, gave her his heart as well as his body when she tired of the village men. Utterly devoted to her despite the pain she caused him, he was.
He knew that she was hurting him and was fully aware of her actions. But they had been friends, always together as children. Always one for optimism, Matthew continued to hold onto the hope that they would one day be together. His relationship with Guy sprung up against his will. He had no control over his feelings – he fell for the Sacaean youth the moment his saw his smile. Matthew still loved Leila, there was no doubt about that. But now this green-eyed beauty was haunting his mind, and there was no turning back.
Almost the entire camp had heard the blazing row. The sound of shouts and breaking glass kept nearly everyone awake all night. Amyra, having the tent closest to her brother and Guy, had to endure the full knowledge of the awful argument.
How it had started, no one knew, not even those who had heard the worst of it when it first began in earnest. But they all knew far too well how it had ended.
"Don't you touch me, Matthew! I am not your whore! You cannot say you love me while your heart still yearns for her!"
"Guy, stop being such a bloody prat! I love you too!"
"Shut up! I don't want to hear those words out of your mouth when you don't – can't – mean them! You sleep with me, you tease me, you say you can't live without me, but you still miss her and you still want her! You'll leave me the moment this war is over!"
"Guy, if you truly believe that, then you're not as smart as I gave you credit for!"
"I saw the way you looked at her in Laus! I watched the way you talked to her, how you smiled at her! And I watched the way you ignored me, forgot I was alive, and then LIED to her about ME, saying I was only a friend, relegating me to the level of secret affair, like you were ASHAMED of me! I mean nothing to you anymore! I never did! "
"…"
"She's ruined EVERYTHING between us! And she's nothing but a cheap whore!"
"Shut your mouth! Don't you DARE speak against her! She is worth more than you could EVER HOPE TO BE, you Sacaean mongrel!"
In her tent, Amyra flinched, anger welling up in her chest. How dare her own brother – who himself was half-Creeokie Sacaean – say such a terrible thing! It was the kind of insult that he knew was worse than a curse or being struck.
Silence filled the camp once more. Amyra assumed that Guy had been too severely stunned to formulate a reply. Moments passed, till finally the Sacaean gained his voice.
"I HOPE YOU FIND HER DEAD IN THE WOODS SOMEWHERE! IT'S ALL YOU DESERVE FOR TAKING MY HEART AND SHATTERING IT! DEATH WOULD HAVE BEEN LESS PAINFUL THAN BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF LIKE THIS!"
Guy's wailing sobs were heard in the otherwise silent night as he ran from the tent into the woods surrounding them. Amyra leapt from her bed moments later to follow him.
She had calmed down her younger friend the best she could, promising to talk to her brother and swearing that he had not meant what he had said.
But talking to Matthew had gotten her nothing more than a bad headache. Her elder brother was unwilling to speak on the subject, insisting that she stay in her place as his little sister and keep her mouth shut, something he normally never held to.
Fear and worry danced together in Amyra's heart as she looked from brother to friend now. Another wave of fog rolled over them as they approached the end of the woods. The Dragon's Gate loomed ahead of them, towering into the otherwise empty sky as the group neared.
They reached the final clearing, marked by two large trees, both gnarled and twisted with age and the sickly aura about the place. Amyra tensed, hand on the hilt of her blade as she spotted a dark figure in the clearing.
"Stand down, everyone. Someone's out there." She ordered, stepping forward cautiously. The Blades around her trod softly behind her, weapons ready.
The figure was that of a woman, slight of build and delicate. Around her neck hung a length of rope, suspending her body between the trees. Dried scarlet trails ran down the front of her cloak and tunic as she swayed slightly in the breeze. She had clearly been dead for a few days, perhaps even for an entire week.
Everyone froze and stared at the body. Recognition flashed like a glint of steel in the sun in the minds of the Bladerunners.
It was Leila.
Amyra whipped around to see her brother. Matthew had paled, brown eyes wide with shock. His lips were tightly pursed together, and his hands were loosely clenched in fists. His entire body shook as though he were about to split at the seams.
"Matt?" she whispered, reaching out her arms for him.
He ignored her and slipped past her, despite the pleas of everyone else to not look anymore. Steadily, he walked to the body of his former beloved.
His twin daggers were in his hands faster than anyone could blink. In two swift motions, he had cut her down, sheathed his blades, and fallen to the ground with her lifeless form in his arms. There was absolute silence as Guy too fell to his knees.
The myrmidon's heart raced as his own harsh words came echoing back through his mind. "I hope you find her dead in the woods somewhere…" he had screamed in his sorrow and rage. His words had come to haunt him. And no matter what, he was certain that Matthew would find a way to lay blame for the death upon him.
Hector stepped past Amyra's shoulder to speak with his childhood friend. The two exchanged words, and with a terse nod, Matthew slipped off into the woods with Leila.
Amyra objected heavily to Matthew's departure alone in the midst of enemy territory and moved to follow him, only to be stopped by Hector. The Ostian prince held her by the waist and laid his head on her shoulder, begging her to let Matthew have his chance to say goodbye without everyone else listening in.
At her friend's insistence, Amyra nodded. She still feared for her brother, but she understood. Turning away from the trees, she spotted Guy on his knees, clutching his head and gritting his teeth as though his thoughts alone were causing him physical harm.
"Guy, it's not your fault." She whispered soothingly to him, stroking his hair from his eyes.
He looked up at her, and in that moment wanted nothing more than to stop the pain. He was like a small child in need of mothering. Amyra opened her arms to him, and he fell against her chest, finally letting go of the tears that he had been fighting to hold in.
Feeling utterly useless in the face of her brother's pain and the pain of her young friend, Amyra too began to cry. While she hadn't liked Leila either, she never wanted the woman dead, certainly not discovered in the woods like this.
The others around them faded away in their minds as the two fellow Sacaeans clung to one another, trying desperately to let go of the frustrations of this bloody war.
A/N:
So one day, I'll get around to adding the rest to this...aheh...^^"
I'll add more as I come up with it. I've been on a hotstreak with Fire Emblem lately - needed a break from Pendragon. DD burned my brain...
Anywho, catch ya'll later readers.
-Chase