Eclipsedragon does not own Fire Emblem, or, sadly, a pet penguin. Ah...Life is unfair, it seems...
After a recent mispronunciation, it struck me how much 'Serra and Erk' sounds like 'Error and Smirk'. Oh deary, deary me… XD
Lady Macbeth, Chapter Eight: Fallen Hearts.
The sight of the clear plain stretched out before him, with a rough circle of patched tents in the far distance, worries Matthew, insofar as he can worry, now. As a spy, he is used to night-attacks in small groups, if not alone; working by stealth, with little manpower to rely on, or, as of late, being directed in battle by someone whose face he cannot remember, alongside those who he used to know, but whose memories have left him. He has never before directed a battle himself, and the plain surrounding his enemies, with its flat terrain and its lack of trees and rocks, offers nowhere to hide from his foes, and it is all too obvious that the morphs following him would have no skill for ambushes. It seems that his only option is a straightforward attack. All the same, he decides to wait for the cover of night to attack, as, whilst the darkness will not affect him or his morphs, it will cloud his enemies' vision, and a blinded foe, his profession has taught him, is already half-defeated.
Erk watches Serra sitting outside the camp, taking her turn to guard it with Lowen, who seems grateful for her newfound silence. Since Matthew's betrayal, the cleric has stopped her regular complaints and requests for vassals, and Erk notices that she is less well groomed than usual, with unwashed hair and dark rings around her eyes. Twice, Lucius, seeing her sadness, has tried to calm her; both times, the bishop, unconvinced but chased away nonetheless by Serra's claims that there is nothing wrong, has been unsuccessful. To his surprise, Erk finds that he misses the louder Serra, annoying though she may be. He, too, has tried to help Serra, only to find himself thinking that, before Matthew's betrayal, she would have declared that the reason for his and Lucius' help was her 'beauty', when now she merely sighs at him, and he misses that arrogance as well. And so Erk sighs in turn… ...only to be silenced when he notices Serra's swollen eyes and the tears rolling down her face…
Serra doesn't immediately notice when someone sits down next to her; not until she feels the weight of the arm slung around hers, and sees the handkerchief being offered to her, and hears his sobs, almost as quiet as her own. She looks round, and sees dark violet hair hanging around a face covered by a hand, from under which tears are leaking as Erk cries with her.
Later, as night settles over the camp, Matthew and the other morphs, able to creep closer as the shadows grow to hide them, stand only a furlong away from their foes. They wait for the time just before dawn, for then the sky will be at its darkest, moon obscured by the clouds that have been looming all day. This, when their enemies are tired and disorientated, will be the perfect time for an attack. Matthew watches the moon as it traces its leisurely path through the sky, but his thoughts do not dwell on it. He thinks, instead, of Leila's imminent return. For some reason, his fading heart tells him that she will be deeply sad – not heartbroken, for he no longer understands the meaning of that word - at the killings he must commit to return her to life, and he wonders why. In the flesh, he decides, all people are the same, and therefore replaceable. But he fails to consider the soul, and fails to think of the true result of what he has done and will yet do. After all, even if he can revive her, he has sacrificed so much of his human heart; lost so much of his empathy, that he has already condemned their love. The meaning of the emotion he used to treasure was lost to him the moment he agreed to work with Nergal. But he does not even realise this, lost as he is, and, though her name and face still ring in his heart, it is as his life's duty, and not as his love.
Arrgh…I…I don't believe it…I…I wrote…F-F-F-FLUFF!!! Even if it was only a small part of the chapter…What is happening to me?! Am I slowly being possessed by some random fluffy pathogen?! But wait…I wrote that semi-fluffy Fruits Basket ficlet too, a while back…This is too confusing, although I guess I wanted to get Serra and Erk's relationship in somehow…Maybe I should just stop soliloquising… Oh, and once again, the spacing's messed up. Augh...