Disclaimer: Fire Emblem does not belong to me
Author's Note: This was going to be my mercenary/Mulan fic, but has now been abandoned. The poem was rewritten entirely (and was remarkably less cheesy), but the computer ate it. This was also originally written around 2007.
It's high time she descends from her ivory tower,
Her innocence is no longer a boon.
She can't understand why the world's turned red,
Can't understand why she can't fight in a war with the
People she loves.
So, she cuts her hair and steals what she needs:
The rapier and pants, the horse and saddle;
And leaves behind what she does not need:
Her dresses and shoes, the gold and bronze.
She doesn't turn back as she douses the candle lights
And takes a step forward; nothing will matter anymore but
What lies ahead.
She enters the army and doesn't know what to do,
She doesn't understand this world
That's why she takes this world into her heart,
Taking kindness and pain all together until she can't tell the difference.
When she takes the battlefield the little girl is gone,
There's a soldier taking orders, staining her hands of her own volition.
She doesn't see the faces, doesn't think about the families,
Not until after does she scream.
She moves up the ranks, her hands buying her way up with the blood of others.
Giving the orders now, she's precise and cunning, but she wearies of this life
All she wanted was to protect and serve,
Is this what she wanted?
She hasn't seen her family in years, and to her surprise the past arrives;
Her father and brother appear and they can't believe what she's done
They tell her to pack her bags and head on back,
The battlefield isn't the place for her.
But she knows better, she knows there's no one who loves the people more
That's why she mutinies, because they've lost sight of
All the people dying so they can finish a blood feud -
And no one could have been more loved:
Ever loved and loyal to the captain, never the monarch.
She takes to the open road again, but this time she's not alone
She has an entire company at her back
The years go by, her hair blows in the wind once more
Her eyes haven't lost their faith, but the
Grim set line of her mouth betrays her cynicism:
There's no such things as happy endings
(But fate is kind)
One day a traveler comes,
He says he's from the capital,
He tells the company of long-awaited news, the false-king is dead, his daughter missing;
Where is she to take the throne?
As she hears this, she grips the chair in dread,
She never wanted the throne, that was for her brother
But no one knows who she is, and she thinks all is well
The traveler stays, and she remembers all she's forgotten.
War was nothing new to Eirika. She knew that was how her country had been built; through war, expansion, and much much blood. But as all things are with children, she never fully understood it. No, not just children, many people in the kingdom of Renais had no inkling of what war was. It had been centuries since the last war, and Renais only suffered from minor skirmishes in which the casualties could be counted on one hand. Indeed, the people had forgotten of war.
But those who lived near the Carcinian border had not forgotten. And nor had King Fado. Although he was the former King's sole heir, he had been begotten out of wed-lock. And out of fear for his child, the former King sent him to the border where no one would know of his lineage.
He had been raised near the kingdom's disputed border with Carcino during the merchant country's political upheaval. There had been many raidings led by desperate Carcinian men who needed the food and supplies for their families. However, many were nothing more than mountain trash and raped and pillaged. Fado had grown up in a world where his family lived in constant fear of raidings, in addition to the threat that one day someone would learn of his lineage and seek to kill him.
The old King died, and in his will, it was revealed he had had a son begotten outside of his political marriage. In it, he legally recognized his son and this was witnessed and signed by several prominent ministers who would testify to its truth.
So, Fado was brought from hiding and became King.
Of course, not everybody was happy with this. The people were certainly glad, but some nobles were not, for they had been aiming to seize control of the throne.
King Fado brought forth great reform to Renais. With his odd upbringing, he had different and refreshing views to bring to the kingdom. It was a welcomed change by many of the courtiers who were tired of all the political liaisons and back stabbing.
And then the kingdom's bliss was two-foldl when their King married and gave birth to twins.
But I digress. This story is Eirika's. The younger twin, daughter of Fado the Gentle, sister of Ephraim the Courageous. Eirika who is forever immortalized as the woman without titles, because there were none to describe her.
So, it came as a surprise to Eirika when her father told her that he and her brother were going off to war. She was shocked; speechless, in fact. She tried to form words, but could find none that properly described her thoughts.
She had known that there had been more fighting than usual, more casualties than usual. But she thought nothing of it. She knew that there were rare years where these things happened, but nothing serious would occur to disrupt daily life. Now, she knew something serious was happening. For her brother to leave was one thing, she had been expecting that to happen for quite some time. But for her father to leave as well. . .?
"There is nothing else I can do, Eirika," Fado told her in soft tones.
She mutely nodded, and the next day both Fado and Ephraim rode off with the soldiers without any aplomb.
It was the day afterwards that the concept of war started to dawn on her. For months she had seen coffins being carried into the castle for proper ceremony, and then carried back out for a proper burial. They had meant nothing to her before, they were nameless people whom she had never met. But now they took on a new meaning, every coffin that she saw made her heart skip a beat in fear that it would be her father or brother.
The next few months went by uneventfully. The kingdom was being run by the Prince of Frelia, whose father was a good friend of Fado. Prince Innes and Eirika had always been on good terms, but she had always gotten along better with his younger sister who was closer to her age. She found being around Innes was uncomfortable; she felt as if she were being examined every which way and being found faulty in all of them.
Eirika felt very much alone. She wondered how her brother and father were doing, if they had been hurt, if Ephraim would be the same when he returned. However, Eirika's thoughts took a very strange turn one day.
She had decided to go out to the market one Sunday morning, because she felt like the castle was a tomb ready to seal her in. Eirika flitted through the market, buying two apples and giving one to a hungry looking girl who was peddling flowers. She wound her way through the crowds of people, content with an environment that was different.
Eventually, she found her way one of the numerous plazas where a traveling theater was performing. They had gathered a large crowd and Eirika pushed her way in to see better. She noted that the play had just started and took a bite into her apple.
The play was about a young woman in the desert kingdom of Jehanna back when the women were still required to travel with a man and married whomever their parents chose. The play opened with a young woman of marriageable age, Isabelle, telling her father she had gone to the desert to pray for her husband and that instead she had dreamed of swords and battles. Her mother interrupted her by saying the sword was a symbol of a man and that Isabelle would enter a battle to win her husband. Isabelle's father then silenced his wife and told his daughter he felt it was an omen that war was coming.
Isabelle's father had been right, because the next day the Queen's private guard came to their home and drafted her father back into the army, even though he had retired because his sword arm had been injured. Her father accepted his duty, because he knew the Queen must be desperate to accept a crippled man like himself.
Isabelle pleaded with her father not to go, but he insisted he would, he even asserted his right as her father, something he rarely did. Her mother was of no use either; she was of the old discipline and bent her will to her husband's.
On the night before her father was to leave, she snuck into his room and stole his sword and armor. She then disguised herself as a man to join the army in her father's stead even though she knew that the discovery of her sex would earn her her execution.
The rest of the play went on with grand swordfights and much action. Eirika was instantly enraptured for she could find herself relating to Isabelle on many levels. Towards the end of the play, Eirika noticed the time and regretfully left the play, for she had to return in time to take dinner with Innes.
Dinner was a droll affair. Innes spent half his time dictating to his assistant what needed to be done. Eirika thought she should've had a headache after the first half-hour; she never knew Innes could make running a country so boring, her father had always made it entertaining. . . The second half of dinner was spent with awkward small talk with the occasional fluidity of normal conversation, but those were rare and far between. Eirika escaped dinner as soon as was seemly possible and retreated to her room.
She reflected on her day, and her thoughts constantly returned to the play she had seen. And it was then that her mind first came up with the absurd idea that would be the catalyst to her legend:
Why didn't she go to join the army?
Eirika certainly had enough basic experience to qualify. She had been trained in the sword for many years, and eventually focused her studies on the rapier. She even knew basic lancework from Ephraim, and she could ride a horse which some soldiers couldn't do until they had trained. The thought appealed to her for numerous reasons. Freedom, adventure, the romance of running away, foolish reasons all of them. But her main reason was that she wanted to see the world for what it really was. She knew she was naive, and there was only one way to remedy that. . .
She made plans for her escape to the army. She drafted a letter to Tana saying she was going to visit her in Frelia for a couple of weeks, and in it, she used the old code they had used as children to tell her she was leaving but would be safe. She made all the proper arrangements to resemble a visit to Frelia, and wondered when she should leave, but that decision was made quite abruptly.
As she placed her hand on the door knob to exit her room for a leisurely garden stroll, she heard the servants whispering about something peculiar.
"Really? Marriage between those two Royals?"
"Yes! Who'd have thought? I never thought Prince Innes was so interested in her!"
"How could you have not noticed? He's always staring at her." The two broke into a fit of giggles.
"I heard he's going to propose tomorrow!"
Eirika shrunk away from the door, shocked. Innes was going to propose to her? But they had hardly had a decent conversation during dinner. How was she supposed to spend the rest of her life with him? With her family gone, she could not fall back on them to decline in her stead, and Eirika was a at a complete loss on how to let him down gently.
Eirika didn't want to get married, she had so many things she still wanted to do. She wanted to travel, see the world, experience first love, fight in the army! And that was when her decision was made. She told herself she was going to leave right away. She told herself she'd only be gone for a little while, and no one would know any better. One small taste of freedom before she shackled herself to Innes for the rest of her life. That's all it would be, a week of freedom, and then it would be over.
When all was said and done, Eirika was very tired. The knowledge that her kingdom was without a leader weighed heavily upon her mind. She had never wanted to rule; that had been Ephraim's role that he'd set aside his dreams of being a mercenary for. When her father had made the decision when they were younger, she had been a sensitive child who could never make terrible decisions.
She felt her brother was still alive. There were rumors circulating of a rebel alliance that was ready to overthrow the last of the usurpers, and that they were led by an aquamarine-haired man who carried a lance and sparkling bracelet. . . If Eirika had ever doubted her brother's life, her doubts were put to rest whenever she'd touch the Stone and find it warm.
Her company didn't need many commissions, there was enough disorder in Renais that any mercenary company could make a killing on it. But she felt it was time to the right thing. She called Colm to her side and told him she had a message for his more unsavory contacts. Colm frowned, but took the message anyway.
There was one other thing weighing upon her mind. It was the Renaisian knight who had informed her of Renais' current political situation. He had said he was leading the remnants of the army and was awaiting either the Prince or Princess to return to command them. He looked pointedly at Eirika and she fought the instinct to flinch.
The knight knew who she was.
She couldn't hide from it any longer.
"My friends… I have not been truthful with you; I am not a noble who fled from marriage, nor am I a commoner with dreams of wealth. I cannot lie, not when there is so much at stake.
"As you know, Renais is in a state of upheaval. Most of the usurpers have been slain, but a few still remain and they are poisoning the kingdom. There are two forces other than them: the rebel army led by Prince Ephraim, and us.
"I know not all of you from Renais, there are those of you from Grado and Frelia. I will not hold you to this company if you do not wish to fight in the upcoming battle. That is, those of you who stay will be allying with Ephraim's group to reclaim the capital.
". . .It's hard to say it after so many years. It is wrong to lie, so here is the truth. As many of you have suspected, I am Eirika, not Ephraim, the daughter of the failed King Fado who has been assumed dead these past five years."
"You did the right thing, Princess."
"I doubt it. I would not have done so unless you had pressed me to do so."
"Ha ha."
"I remember you, now."
". . .Do you?"
"Yes, you are not a knight, but a general. The Silver Knight, Seth."
"Yes, I was called that once."
"Once? They once called me a princess."
"You have always been one."
"And you have always been a knight."