Ugh, I had to cut this chapter short because it started getting too long. So… not much action. Just a lot of exposition, introspection, and over-analysis. Enjoy?

Edit: I am a moron and accidentally left out an entire PAGE of this thing before posting it so... yayyy second postage? Oh my god I am SO sorry.

Fuyu didn't move from her spot by the lake for a long while. It wasn't that she was trying to avoid the people who claimed to be her family – thought it was nice not having anyone hovering over her shoulder, for once, - the lake's surface just looked so calm and peaceful that she couldn't bring herself to move. Not to mention, there was that place under the lake's surface, the place the blue-haired woman warned her never to speak of—

"So this is where you were. You were gone for so long, we were getting worried."

Fuyu startled as she jerked her head upward. Mikoto knelt down next to her, sitting on her knees and smoothing out her white skirt. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"Y-Yes," Fuyu answered shakily. "I'm sorry."

Mikoto shook her head. "There's nothing to apologize for."

Fuyu winced as the blue-haired woman's expression from before suddenly returned to the forefront of her mind – shocked, and then guarded and defensive. "W-Well…"

Mikoto laid her hand on Fuyu's shoulder so gently that it put Fuyu quickly at ease. "Did something happen?"

Fuyu drew her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly. "I-I thought she was drowning. I didn't know she was… that there was—" She clamped her hand over her mouth before she could utter another word. That woman had been so insistent that she not say anything, and yet… "I'm sorry. I can't tell you."

Mikoto raised her eyebrows. "You can't?" she repeated. "Or is it that you won't?"

"Can't," Fuyu answered quickly and easily. It felt reassuring to admit it, even though the woman's secret, whatever it was, was as good as revealed. "I-I mean…"

"No, I understand," Mikoto said, sighing. "I see. So that's how it is. I'd hoped my sister would be the one to teach you all of this, but…"

"Your sister…?"

Mikoto's hand slid from Fuyu's shoulder, down her arm until it gripped her hand. "Fuyu," she said slowly, "would you like to go back?"

"Go back?" she echoed. "Where?"

Mikoto shook her head. "I can't say."

Fuyu looked down at Mikoto's hand over her own. It was a comforting presence, even though the woman next to her symbolized all that Fuyu had been taught to reject. Hoshido was the enemy, and yet there was something about its queen – some magic, perhaps, or maybe she was just that charismatic – that made the idea of fighting sound repulsive. If it were Xander, he'd be on his guard, not letting the enemy get so close to him. If it were Camilla, she'd be able to speak so sweetly, seemingly revealing everything there was to know about her yet actually revealing nothing at all. If it were Leo, he'd gather as much information as possible without seeming like he was searching for it in the first place. If it were Elise, she'd charm everyone around her to just let her leave without a fuss, though not before a glorious tea party.

But Fuyu wasn't like any of her siblings – she wasn't strong or smart or brave or charismatic, so she couldn't bring herself to push the Hoshidan queen away like her father would have expected her to do. Paradoxically, she didn't want Mikoto to leave. Paradoxically, she wanted to go back to that space under the lake, so far removed from Hoshido and Nohr and everything that was wrong with the world.

"Can't?" she said finally in a small voice. "Or won't?"

To her surprise, Mikoto chuckled. "Good," she said. "You understand." Slowly, she stood and pulled Fuyu to her feet. "It's easier to go if you sing," she said as she waded into the lake, lifting her skirt with her free hand. She pulled Fuyu into the lake with her, gripping her hand tightly. "I was never as good a singer as my sister, I'm afraid. That, and I can never seem to remember the words." They stopped walking when they were deep enough in the lake that Fuyu had to stand on her toes to keep her head above the water. Then, Mikoto closed her eyes and began to sing on "ah." Her voice was clear, weaving easily through the notes of Fuyu's lullaby, but nowhere near as rich and powerful as the Nohrian queen's.

Water began to swirl around them, glowing pale blue as it surrounded them. Fuyu closed her eyes, and then, in the span of one breath, they slipped under the surface. Maybe the only reason it was so much easier this time was that she was prepared for it – or maybe because this time it wasn't an accident. When she opened her eyes and found herself back in the same place the woman told her never to speak of, she didn't feel dizzy or sick. Instead, there was a sense of calmness – like she didn't belong anywhere but here.

"This is Valla," Mikoto explained. "This is… well, the only word I know to describe this place is home."

It looked nothing like the forests and oceans and rivers depicted in the books she'd read – places other people had seen and called "beautiful" in that aesthetically pleasing way that made you want to just stare for hours on end. But Valla was beautiful in a way Fuyu couldn't describe – in the peaceful serenity of the stone ruins and green foliage and patches of blue sky, despite the almost harsh silence of it all. The cool mist enveloping everything was blissfully soothing, and Fuyu felt oddly at peace despite being so far away from her siblings. "It's lovely," she said breathlessly.

Mikoto chuckled. "It certainly seems that way, doesn't it? Not too long ago, it was even lovelier – so full of life and laughter. So many colors, so many sounds… we truly cherished this place."

"'We?'" Fuyu echoed.

"Well, yes," Mikoto said with a wry smile. "You were born here, you know – but I brought you to Hoshido when you were an infant, so it's only natural that you don't remember." She looked upward, at a patch of blue sky that drifted between clouds of white mist. "Ideally, we should leave this place in the history books where it belongs and never return… but that's impossible. It's cruel." She squeezed Fuyu's hand, though whether it was for Fuyu's comfort or her own, Fuyu couldn't tell. "This place is cursed," Mikoto said, her voice shaking slightly, "and those with ties to it, even more so."

Fuyu squeezed her hand back. "What do you mean?"

"We can never speak of this place, for one. Not outside its confines – or we die instantly. But even that isn't enough – this place is designed to reject all outside the control of the one who cursed it to begin with." She closed her eyes, and a few tears slid down her cheeks. "No matter how badly we wish to return, no matter how many times we try to do so, we can never stay. This place is as inhospitable to us as dry land is to a fish." She gave Fuyu a small, broken smile. "You must have felt it – something inexplicably powerful that compels you to return here, even before you knew this place existed?"

Fuyu averted her eyes downward. What Mikoto was saying made sense, but not in a way Fuyu could put into words. She thought of moments spent lingering too long by bodies of water, of the Bottomless Canyon and how she so strangely wanted to see what was at the bottom despite Gunter's warnings.

"There's more to the story, of course," Mikoto continued, "but we've reached our limit for now. We need to go back to the surface, or we will not be able to leave at all. But first…" She drew away slowly, leaving Fuyu's hand feeling almost unbearably cold now that there was no longer anyone holding it. Mikoto made her way over to a cluster of shiny, pale blue rocks, and she crouched down and plucked one from the ground. She came back quickly, gripping Fuyu's hand and pulling her back to the surface as quickly and painlessly as she'd pulled her into Valla before.

When they returned to the surface, the lake was as quiet and placid as ever – even though night had fallen, the garden was still bright in a way that Nohr would never be. Outside the comforting mist of Valla, the reality of the situation struck Fuyu so quickly and suddenly that tears sprang into her eyes. She'd been too quick to trust the Hoshidan queen – Xander would have scolded her, Leo would have teased her, and Garon would have been so, unspeakably angry. She wanted to return to Xander, Camilla, Leo and Elise, not stay here with people she didn't even know who called themselves her true family.

(Four others who called her sister, and a woman who called her daughter, so earnestly and so lovingly that she didn't want to believe it was all an elaborate ruse to take her as a hostage like the Hoshidans had always wanted.)

"Here," Mikoto said gently, pressing the rock she'd picked up earlier into Fuyu's hands. It felt smooth and surprisingly delicate – more like glass than stone. "If you have any doubts, this crystal will show you the truth."

The last image to flicker through Fuyu's mind before she closed her eyes was of Hinoka, tearfully hugging her – but the image that soon replaced it was hazy and shrouded in mist, just like Valla. She could make out two figures – a tall woman, holding something, and a short girl. The mist cleared slightly, revealing the woman as Mikoto, swaying lightly with a dark-haired child in her arms, and what Fuyu assumed was Hinoka, her hair longer and pulled into a braid.

Hinoka tugged on Mikoto's sleeve, lips curled into a pout. "I want to hold her."

Mikoto chuckled. "What do you say, little one?" she asked the child in her arms. "Do you want to go to your big sister?" The child made a gurgling sort of noise, and Mikoto laughed again. She crouched down by Hinoka and extended her arms. The child reached out toward Hinoka, and the girl quickly wrapped her arms around it. "Careful," Mikoto said, propping up the child with one hand until Hinoka could properly adjust her grip.

"She's heavy!" Hinoka exclaimed, though she smiled when the child wrapped its arms around her neck.

"Well, of course," Mikoto replied. "She's not Sakura's age anymore."

Suddenly, the door swung open, revealing a boy with wild, unruly dark hair pulled into a messy ponytail. "Mother!" he called breathlessly. "Come quickly! Takumi was playing in the kitchen, and he sliced his hand open with a—"

"Oh dear," Mikoto sighed. "Hinoka, can you look after Fuyu for a few moments?"

Hinoka nodded. "Yes, Mother."

"Thank you." Mikoto stood and rushed to the door. "Quickly, Ryoma. Show me."

And then, the crystal shattered. Fuyu gasped as she jumped back, dropping her hands to her sides as the shards fell to the ground. What she'd just seen was something that had happened in the past – she couldn't say how, but she was sure of it. There were no memories that returned with the image – nothing else of Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi, Sakura, or even her mother. Her mind went utterly blank when she tried to recall even the smallest memory of Hoshido prior to her arrival just recently, and as far back as she pushed, all she could remember was lying feverish and deliriously ill in a bed in Nohr, with the Nohrian queen holding her hand and singing to her.

("You have more power than you know, little one. When all else is lost, this song will guide you home.")

It was unfair for a number of reasons, the most pressing one at the moment being Mikoto looking at her expectantly, as if she'd hoped that Fuyu would remember more. Fuyu took one deep, shuddering breath and wiped futilely at her conspicuously wet eyes. She wasn't supposed to lose her composure so easily, but such matters were always a losing battle. Garon would have surely scolded her, or at least ordered her to be silent.

But Mikoto wasn't Garon. "Oh, my dear child," she said as she wrapped her arms around Fuyu, more gently than she did when they'd first met earlier that day, and pulled her close. "I'm so sorry. Maybe that was too much of me to ask of you…"

Without thinking, Fuyu threw her arms around her, and she could do nothing but cry as she buried her face in her mother's clothes.

Fuyu woke slowly the next morning in a room that wasn't hers. She was allowed to take her time, since she was no longer in the Northern Fortress and there were no Flora and Felicia to force her awake with their freezing hands. There was no Gunter waiting by her beside, and there was no Jakob listing off the items on her agenda for the day.

Fuyu sighed as she clutched her bed sheets. The mattress was different from what she was used to – on the floor instead of propped up by a bed frame, with a thicker blanket. Her clothes, which she'd discarded the previous night in favor of robes similar to what Hinoka was wearing before, were now clean and sat folded neatly on a table nearby, next to another set of robes – white with a pale blue sash.

And then, she noticed a slip of paper, folded neatly with a pale blue ribbon tied around it, sitting between the two garments on the table. She picked it up gently, afraid to pull too hard on the ribbon lest she wrinkle the surprisingly delicate paper. Inside was several lines written in a pleasant, neat cursive. From how thick the ink appeared, it was clear that the writer had taken extra care to write as beautifully as possible.

"Lady Fuyu," it read, and she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew who the sender was from that first line alone. "I hope this day finds you in better spirits than the last. Once more, I would like to apologize for bringing you to this country so suddenly, without notifying you at all. To learn so suddenly that the circumstances of your birth differ so greatly from what you believed must have been a horrible shock, and it was a factor I did not consider until after the task was completed.

"That said, I hope you come to see Hoshido as the home it once was to you. If there is anything I can do to make the transition more comfortable for you, please let me know."

Fuyu sighed happily and smiled at Kaze's name signed not quite as neatly at the bottom – maybe he was in a rush to finish. There was a bottle of ink and a brush, along with several sheets of paper conveniently sitting there on the table, and she set straight to work after changing into the robes set out for her. The words flowed easily, effortlessly – it was easy to talk to Kaze in the same way it was easy to talk to Flora, Felicia, and Jakob. She thanked him first – thanked him for being so kind and patient with her, despite how she was anything but the perfect guest. Thanked him for working so hard to bring her back home, even though it was still impossible to connect Hoshido with the concept of home – that honor lay solely with the Northern Fortress, along with her siblings, her father, Gunter, Flora, Felicia, and Jakob. Though, she supposed, Mikoto was slowly worming her way there, and it was easier to think of Ryoma and especially Hinoka as something closer to what Xander and Camilla were.

She paused, and she had to readjust her grip on the brush so that ink wouldn't drip onto her letter. Hoshido was supposed to be the enemy, she reminded herself. They were supposed to be greedy and elitist, hoarding all the world's resources for themselves and affording only the most meager scraps to those who dared to ask for help. But it was impossible to reconcile that image with the people she'd met the previous day – the queen was nothing like the manipulative witch the complaints about her barrier around the kingdom made her out to be. The royal family was kind and welcoming, loving in the same way Xander, Camilla, Leo, and Elise were.

Why are we at war again?

Suddenly, there was a knock at her door. Fuyu looked up, and nearly dropped the brush in surprise. Standing at the doorway was the woman with long blue hair and gold eyes like her own, one hand pressed to the wall so that she could lean slightly against it and a small, gentle smile tugging at her thin lips. She wore a robe much like the ones given to Fuyu – dark blue and indigo like Fuyu's dress.

"J-Just a moment!" Fuyu yelped as she hurriedly finished her last sentence – her normally neat cursive turned into a messy scrawl – and signed her name at the bottom.

"Please, take all the time you need," said the woman, wrapping her arms around her torso and pressing her back against the door frame. It was like she was an entirely different person – there was none of the defensiveness of the previous day, none of the shock and disapproval.

Fuyu set the brush back down in to the ink bottle and folded her letter down the center. It wasn't the cleanest fold – the corners didn't align properly – but she hoped that Kaze wouldn't mind her sloppiness. When she looked up again, for an instant, she could swear it was the Nohrian queen standing before her. It took a few blinks to reorient herself – the woman before her was not the Nohrian queen, though she looked very similar, which meant…

"Azura…?"

The woman raised her eyebrows. "Hm?"

Fuyu's throat went dry, and she swallowed in hopes that it would make it easier to talk. It didn't. "That's your name… isn't it?"

Azura smiled again, surprisingly gentle, and Fuyu mentally berated herself for not paying closer attention, for not discovering her identity sooner. "So Mikoto told you, then?"

Fuyu shook her head. There had been another princess of Nohr – someone taken when the Hoshidans had failed to kidnap Fuyu. This was common knowledge, and yet Xander and Camilla would dance around the issue, briefly alluding to a sister who was no longer there, and then quickly changing the subject before anyone else could catch onto the fact that something was amiss. She'd only heard this lost sister's name whispered among servants when they thought she wasn't listening, more frequent when she was younger until it seemed that no one could even remember now that there had been another princess.

Azura gently grabbed Fuyu's wrist and pulled her to her feet. Maybe it was because she noticed her distress, or maybe this had been her plan all along. "Perhaps some fresh air would make this conversation easier?" she said sweetly.

Fuyu nodded and swallowed again. It was hard to believe that this was the same woman who'd been so upset with her the previous day, and insanely, she didn't want to ever leave her side. Belatedly, at the door, she remembered the letter. "W-Wait! I have to…" She trailed off as she looked back at the table. The letter she had just written was gone.

Azura chuckled. "I think it's safe to say that whoever that letter was addressed to has received your message."

"Are they well?" Azura asked once they reached the same garden as before. It was uncomfortably hot in Hoshido, though the air was lighter, crisper – different from the perpetual mugginess of the Northern Fortress.

"Who?" Fuyu asked, frowning in confusion. Azura just shook her head, and suddenly the answer became clear. "Oh… They're… fine, I suppose. They're doing well enough."

Azura sank to the ground under the shade of the large tree. She patted the ground next to her, and Fuyu gingerly sat next to her. "Tell me about them."

Fuyu held her breath. Maybe it was treasonous to speak highly of the Nohrian royal family in Hoshido – but this was supposed to be her sister, in a sense, and she had a right to know. "Xander is well on his way to succeeding the throne," she said quietly. When she closed her eyes, she found herself back in the Northern Fortress, back at home, and surrounded by her siblings. "He's so well respected in the army that even speaking with him is considered a huge honor. You wouldn't believe how many people fear him, though… he told me just the other day that he was talking to one young cavalier who was so terrified that he couldn't stop shaking through the entire conversation!"

Azura laughed. "Somehow, I find that very hard to believe."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Fuyu retorted, grinning. It was easier to talk now, though she couldn't say why. "He used to be so sweet and gentle… still is, actually! But bring the war or training into it, and it's like he's a completely different person." She frowned and gave a small, petulant pout. "He's entirely too enthusiastic about training. Did you know just the other day, he lied and said that Father was disappointed in my training so that he could push me in to working harder?"

Azura shook her head, clearly amused. "I did not."

"And Leo laughed about it!" She lowered her voice and squinted to properly imitate her younger brother. "'It's your own fault for being so gullible,' he said!"

"He's not wrong, you know."

"I know, but he doesn't have to be so smug about it!" Fuyu huffed in annoyance. "You know, he's not cute at all! I remember, when we were little, he'd follow me wherever I went and beg me to read all the same storybooks he did, but now he assigns me homework! Makes me read some boring textbook on military strategy, and then gives me practice questions on the material…"

"And Camilla?" Azura prompted, grinning almost as widely as Fuyu.

"Better than Leo," Fuyu answered flatly. "She visits… oh, I'd say less often than Leo and Elise, but more than Xander." She giggled, suddenly recalling the previous visit – the one before all her siblings came to take her to Castle Krakenburg. "A few weeks ago, she brought me this beautiful brooch some suitor had given her as a present. She said it was as lovely as he was ugly on the inside. Then she sat me and Elise down and told us that someday, men and women will come asking for our hand in marriage, expecting us to agree because of all the gifts and affection they shower upon us, except we're not obligated to accept." She laughed again. "She says Elise is in greater danger than I am because all Elise has to do is open her mouth for everyone to like her. Which is true! Except, apparently, Xander is the absolute worst at this. Camilla always has to shoo away the people that come after his… something. Hand in marriage, yes, but something else too. No one will tell me what it is."

Azura laughed. "So it seems everyone's worries were unfounded, then," she said, "though it's hard to imagine how much Nohr has changed, for it to make you so happy."

And then, Fuyu suddenly remembered where she was – in Hoshido, speaking too freely and too highly of what its people considered the enemy. She clamped her mouth shut and felt heat rise to her cheeks, and she wrung her hands together nervously. "I'm sorry…"

Azura shook her head. "Don't be."

Fuyu chewed on her lower lip and, not for the first time, wanted to go back to her siblings. Even though Hoshido was brighter than Nohr, even though she was allowed outside for as long as she wanted and without a servant accompanying her, even though there was that kingdom at the bottom of the lake. "They miss you, you know," she said in a small voice. "They won't say it out loud, but they do."

Azura sighed, and then stood up. "Things were supposed to get better," she said as she stepped toward the lake. "My mother promised me that things would get better once you arrived. I'd have someone close to my age there, always at my side because no one would dare to hurt the child of a foreign king, even with someone like me there with them." She shook her head. "But then the opposite happened. You came, and my mother refused to leave your side because you were so ill. And then, Xander and Camilla changed. They started paying attention to me, when they barely registered my existence before, and my mother did the same for them. And then my mother died…" She closed her eyes and gave a small, mirthless laugh. "And then I took your life here. I took your mother, I took your siblings, and for years when all they wanted was to see you again, I—"

Fuyu bolted to her feet and grabbed both of Azura's hands firmly. "That's not your fault!" she cried. "It's…" But then words failed her. How was she supposed to explain why no one had tried to bring her back from Nohr? How was she supposed to explain why no search parties for Azura had been sent to Hoshido?

"Even if they really have changed as much as you say, I have no intention of going back," Azura said, quickly drawing her hands away from Fuyu. "It's selfish of me, but, frankly, I would rather die than go back to that awful place. Not when there's no longer anything there for me."

Fuyu averted her eyes downward. It was common knowledge, how awful the Nohrian royal courts were, and it had to be a miracle that she'd managed to avoid the worst of it – or maybe the Nohrian queen was just that successful in protecting her from it.

(Briefly, Queen Arete's voice floated to the forefront of her mind, singing her lullaby. The lake gleamed in the sunlight, and it took more effort than necessary to fight off the urge to go back to the kingdom under its surface.)

"I…" Fuyu started. Her voice broke, and there was a pressure building in her sinuses that she knew could only spell disaster. "I can't even remember my own mother. Th-There was a crystal from—mph!"

Azura suddenly clamped a hand over Fuyu's mouth and frowned sternly at her. "Are you always so careless with words?"

"S-Sorry…" Fuyu mumbled, though it was muffled with Azura's hand over her mouth. Somehow, when the princess removed her hand, some of the tension from before was gone. "So… there was this crystal that showed me… something from my past? My mother was there, and so were Hinoka and Ryoma, but…" Fuyu sighed. "I don't remember. It was like… like I was reading a scene from book. I felt something from it, and I suppose that's proof enough that it was real, but…" She dug her nails into the palms of her hands. "I remember your mother better!"

And that was the crux of the matter – when she thought of "Mother," the first image that came to her mind was Arete. Now, she knew to push that image aside in favor of Mikoto – it was no coincidence that they looked so similar, and children were supposed to look like their parents – but Arete was still there, staying by her side when she was ill and singing to her in a memory that refused to fade, no matter what the Hoshidan queen said otherwise.

"So you feel guilty for taking away my mother? It's only fair because I took away yours!"

Everything blurred before her in a watery haze, and Fuyu buried her face in her hands. It was shameful to lose her composure like this in enemy territory. Leo wouldn't tease her for this – he'd be shouting at her along with Xander.

But then Azura wrapped her arms around Fuyu and pressed her forehead against hers. "If one thing is for certain," she said gently, "it's that both Hoshido and Nohr need to reevaluate how they treat their political hostages.

Fuyu couldn't help but laugh at that, but it was a watery, broken sound when it was mixed with tears. "Agreed."