"The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living." - Cicero

I peeked into the small wood bars. The bars were dyed a very light baby blue, probably a shade away from an actual white. The rest of the exterior, the same. There was a tiny pillow and a blanket so small, I might have mistaken it for a bib, granted bibs could be folded so that they became almost miniscule.

Under the bib like blanket was the tiny form of my little sister. It might not have been fair to call her tiny considering I wasn't that much larger but, big sister privileges. I laughed to myself. Yeah, I would have fun teasing her a bit.

Slowly I squeezed my hand through the bar and poked her belly. No reaction. I poked her foot. No reaction. I poked her hand. Still no reaction. I ended up poking her face until she cried. She wailed so loudly, I panicked. Come on, come on! What did I do for my little brother!? Weird faces? I tried. Cynthia had her eyes shut tight and didn't see me. Um, weird sounds! No dice, she was too loud for her to hear me. Uh, Aunt Lissa! What did she do again!? A teddy? I rushed out of the room, ran into mine, grabbed the bear sitting on my shelf, and tried to rush back. My feet pounded on the palace floor. I hoped Mother wouldn't be disturbed.

"Lucina what are you doing?" And there she was. Mother stepped out of a room and I jumped, not expecting her to be there. She didn't look mad, in fact she looked curious. I guessed she hadn't heard Cynthia.

I looked down at my feet and shuffled them. She probably saw the teddy bear too. "Cynthia's crying loudly, s-so I thought I'd cheer her up with a toy!" I held up Beary nervously. I was chanting in my head, please don't think of this as silly! I sucked in a breath, she'd say it'd be a stupid thing to do, I just knew it!

"You are quite a disappointing child!"

I heard her chuckle, probably in pity, but I was confused when her warm hand rested on my head. "I'm sure she'll love it!" She smiled. I looked at her curiously, my eyes widened. She didn't think it was stupid? She thought it was nice?

I gigantic grin broke out on my face and I nodded excitedly. "Yeah! We can cheer her up together!" I grabbed Mother's hand and I dragged her to the room where Cynthia was still wailing. "Let's go!"

I think Mother had a hard time with me pulling her arm all the way down the hall, she only protested mildly, and worried about me tripping. I laughed despite her concern. I wasn't that clumsy!

My foot caught on the beginning of a rug, and I face planted. Mother was buzzing around me to make sure I wasn't hurt. I laughed weakly, even if I was in pain, I wanted to make sure Mother wouldn't have to take care of two crying children.

We reached Cynthia's room without further injury. Mother insisted that I get some ice, but I waved her off. My first and foremost priority was Cynthia.

We walked over to Cynthia's crib and Mother lifted me so I could place Beary next to her. She was still crying, but I heard how she quieted down a bit. Mother placed me back down and I spoke through the bars.

"Hi Cynni!" It was a work in progress nickname. "Guess what? Mama's here!" I spread my arms to showcase Mother, almost as if she was a model on display. Humoring me, Mother tilted her head and smiled. "You know what else?" I poked the bear and saw how he swayed. Cynthia was mesmerized by him, and stopped crying altogether. I chuckled. "Beary's gonna keep you company! That way you won't be alone and he can cheer you up!"

Mother hummed after a moment or two of watching Cynthia look at the bear with limitless curiosity. "I think you have things handled here Lucy. I'm going to make some pie for when your father gets home, do you want to help me?"

I was shocked. Father was coming home?! Then this wasn't the first timeline! I cheered in my head and I felt like a million dollars. Father was going to come home! Then he could tell me how he was and tell me more stories! Maybe he'd make it sound like they were really happening! I was ecstatic.

I voiced my loud and exuberant question to Mother. She nodded, smiled softly and scolded me for being loud in the baby's room. I blushed and rubbed the back of my neck, not only for yelling, but because ever since she birthed Cynthia, I was always asking her where Father was. She was really patient and said he'd come back soon, it was a wonder how she put up with me. If it wasn't for the maids she might have overworked herself, taking care of me and a baby who cried almost constantly.

I looked back at Cynthia for a second and back at Mother. "Could I stay here for a few moments? I still want to tell Cynthia a few things." I smiled at Cynthia when she caught my gaze briefly.

"Sure, I'll be in the kitchen getting started!" She left the room and I heard her feet wander down the staircase and got quieter once she neared the kitchen.

I let out a long breath. "Sorry for making you cry in the first place," I smiled. "But Papa's gonna be back real soon! You'll get to meet him and we're all gonna tell you stories!" I turned to leave and hesitated when I walked to the door. "I...we'll make sure you have a good home..." And with that said I walked out and closed it.

Mother, Father and I were going to give Cynthia the best home she could possibly wish for, I wanted to make sure of that. There were a lot of things I wanted to get done for Cynthia. I wanted to give her family experiences I never really got before being reborn. I wanted to show her what being a family meant.

I skipped down into the kitchen and found Mother getting ingredients. The island in the middle was almost filled with them. Sugar, salt, baking powder, etc. She was checking through every cupboard and looked a bit worried.

I bounced next to her. "Missing something Mum?" I heard a loud bump that made me jolt, and Mother groaned. Her arm moved to her head to rub the spot she hit tenderly. "Are you alright?" I asked, concerned. I didn't see much of it, but I knew that Mother could be pretty clumsy.

She turned out of the ground level cupboard and let out a hiss. "Yeah, don't worry Lucina I only bumped my head." She was still holding her head and winced a bit.

"Do you want me to get some ice?" I asked. Hopefully she'd let me do this much. Sure I looked like a kid but that didn't mean I wasn't responsible. I could help.

"No, no, no. I'm fine Lucy, don't worry about me!" She laughed off the pain, and I wasn't convinced in the least but I let it go. If Mother didn't want my help right away then that was okay, I'd get her ice for her later.

"So you're looking for something then?" I crossed my arms behind my back and rocked on the balms of my feet. I had this innocent look down pat. I wonder if I could adorable my way out of being caught taking from the cookie jar?

Mother took her hands from her head and nodded. "I'm looking for the flour. You haven't seen it by chance, have you?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, I haven't. I could help you look though!" And so we searched. We checked through every cupboard hoping to find the flour and were proven unsuccessful each time. I didn't even bother to check most of them after the first 15 cupboards and drawers, and let out a disappointed sigh with each.

Mother didn't have much luck either. I heard her sighs from across the room, and they were becoming more depressed. "I guess Chrom won't get a nice welcome home pie…" She muttered like her heart broke.

I could feel the emotion off of her, and it was absolutely heart breaking. She was so excited to welcome Father back home with a homemade baked good, and she couldn't because we didn't have one measly ingredient.

I forcefully opened the next cabinet and was enraged that the familiar bag was in there. I probably should have been happy but it almost hurt my mother and that made me mad. Instead of ripping it to shreds, I leaned back, pointed at it, and blandly said,"Is this it Mum?"

She looked overjoyed that I'd found the damn flour. And we rushed to make pie. Measuring went well, we stayed according to the recipe. I think it was the mixing that actually messed us up. When we put the flour in, it sort of spilled everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. On the floors, tables, chairs, etc. The maids were going to have a field day. We even got flour on ourselves. We both took looks at each other's faces and busted ourselves laughing. I was almost crying! It was in my hair too! Mother hurried me to the bath, insisting that I go first. I wanted to argue but there wasn't a point. Mothers took care of their children, and while I was her child, I didn't want to be treated so softly. And so, reluctantly, I took the first bath.

I didn't really understand how bathing worked at first and hoped it was nothing like my teachers had described to me in highschool. From what I learned in history class, people went to the river to get cold water and used it for bathing and all toilet needs, then they'd dump in back into the river and take water from it all over again. I cringed back then. That was not healthy.

However by the time I could wash myself, I was pleasantly surprised that it was not the case, or not particularly. We still used the river for washing clothes, and retrieving it for baths, but waste was not thrown into the waterways. The water was cleaned by heating it up first, like how some people boil their tap water, and then it was used. And waste was rid of thanks to nature. Well, more like bed pans.

I entered the elegant room, sunlight streaming from the upper level windows. The light reflected off the golden yellow tinted tiles, and I walked over to the marble like wall. The matching sink was a few feet away, and a toilet, another few. The toilet was used, except it was more like a porta-potty. The maids cleaned it often, thank goodness. Bathtubs weren't really a thing, it was more like we sat on a small stool and splashed water on ourselves, and yet we still used the term, 'bathing.'

I bathed happily despite the water being cold, but I was glad some of it was still warm. I was in bliss. I was there spreading the water over my body and it was like it was washing the stress away. My cause of stress? School. I was supposed to start schooling soon. It wasn't that I was worried about schooling or anything, I was a pretty decent student, but it was because they would be private lessons. So it would only be me and a teacher. I would have preferred me in a class with other kids, but no, I was a smart little princess who couldn't afford distractions. I still hadn't figured out if I was regarded as smart for my age, but I guess it didn't matter to me either way. If I could do things on my own, then I was fine.

I reached for a towel to dry my hair. It had gotten longer over the few years, and I thought it looked really pretty. I realized blue hair was not a natural colour a long long time ago(really, common sense) but it was a nice change of pace. It was nice not to be normal for once. I didn't have that messy brown hair anymore, sure I was used to it, yet I could honestly say I didn't miss it much.

After I messed up my hair, I changed back into my dress. Dresses were kind of weird too. I was more used to wearing long jeans and baggy sweaters. Dresses weren't as, secure let's say. The one I was wearing however, was made of light material and was suited for summer. It was a really light blue, and had sky blue sparkles in every few places. It was the nicest dress I've ever worn if that counted for anything.

I left the bathroom, and let Mother have her chance. I headed back to Cynthia's room to play with her again. Hopefully she wouldn't cry too bad. I saw her drooling on Beary and I gasped. I ran forward and snatched the bear to clean it up. She did not! My head whipped around to see Cynthia tearing up. Damn it.

Reluctantly, I placed Beary back down next to her. I was not about to tolerate her drooling over a cherished gift from Aunt Lissa. I guess it was my idea to hand it down to her, still, that didn't mean I wasn't done with it just yet. So, I made Cynthia work for it. Whenever she came too close to unleash her slobber all over Beary, I'd move him harshly so he'd go to where her feet were. I'm sure she had a wonderful time at her first ever work out! Eventually, she started tearing up again when she struggled for the hundredth time, so I spared myself and Mother the waterworks and gave her the bear.

I spent the rest of my day playing around with Cynthia, waiting for the pie to be done baking, and reading a bit. I also spoke with Amice to tell her about how great my day was. I was exaggerating almost every part and I excitedly waved my arms and legs in every other direction.

Amice smiled softly at me. "I-I'm really happy for y-you Princess…" She was stuttering a bit less than when we first encountered and I was really proud of her for that, but she still had some progress to go. She was stuttering in front of someone who was greatly younger than her physically. She looked happy like she said, even so I frowned.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" I asked. I tilted my head from where I sat on my bed.

"I-I beg your p-pardon?" She was poking her fingers together and her face was steadily becoming more pink.

"You keep calling me princess like it's my name. Why?" I really didn't like it when she kept calling me that.

Her face lit up with understanding. "W-well, your r-royalty and should be treated as s-such. I'm only a m-maid and have no r-right to call you by your given n-name." I grimaced.

"Y-you know," I started off with a shaky voice. In fact, I could feel my body trembling. From my hands to my feet, I was shaking. "you kind of sound like those kids back at the capitol…"

I hated them. I didn't spend all my time cooped up in the palace, I went outside occasionally to look at the flowers, or the stars. There were times when Mother would take me out to the capitol, usually with a guard or two, and we'd look at the markets or greet the people. I remember the times when I saw kids around my age greet me. I was still quite awkward with social interactions with people outside of my family, but I still spoke with them. I might as well make a happy life, right? So, these kids were pretty up there by social standards. They knew proper etiquette, they could use words like weapons, and they were overall the kind of kids who were amazingly adept at a lot. We eventually became friends, and I asked if they could come to the palace to hang out sometime. They came, it was fun I guess, but then they started asking some of the most disturbing questions, the really personal kind. So, I stopped inviting them over in hopes the questions would stop. They didn't. Wherever I tried to go with them, they'd still ask. It was irritating. Then I stopped hanging out with them altogether. They didn't feel like friends, they were rude to the poor, and were judgemental. I hated that. They didn't seem like good people altogether. The strangest part to me was when they refused to call me by my name. They'd only call me princess, your highness or your majesty. It was annoying. They weren't friends, they didn't feel like it in the slightest.

And now that I thought about it, I hated being called anything but my name. Little girls always dream of being princesses, but it's really not all they make it out to be. Sure, you can look cutesy and wave, but that title came with a lot of expectations.

"P-pardon me?" Amice sounded so confused it hurt. She might not have been with me when I was exploring the city, but my sentiment showed through didn't it? Couldn't she tell I was upset?

I sighed. Did I have to explain? Not that I didn't want to, but I was so anxious of her reaction, I wasn't up to it.

My fingers curled around and gripped the bed's frame. "I… Y-you sound like you're saying we're not friends…" I whispered the word 'friends' so quietly, I doubted Amice heard me. I could feel the strain I was putting on my muscles, in fact, I could feel the movement of almost all the muscles in my body; anything to concentrate on besides this conversation. I wanted to add more to what I was saying but my throat felt dry and was tightening up quick. My head drooped down, and I looked to my movementless feet. Why was I struggling so hard with this? Why was it so hard for me to just scream out, 'We're friends, ya know?'

"F-friends…?" I couldn't bear myself to look at her expression. Pity? Confusion? Both? I just couldn't look up.

I jerked my head into a shaky nod and swallowed loudly, hoping to get myself able to speak. "Y-you're always there for me… You always listen, we always talk to each other… I-if that's not what a friend is…." I trailed off. I never had to explain to a person we were friends, it was a new experience entirely, and now that I had to, it was difficult and scary because of the fear of ultimate rejection. "Then I don't know w-what is..." I finished lamely.

I heard a small gasp, almost inaudible. I almost missed it too. I took it as a bad sign, and I wanted nothing more than to run out of the room, but I couldn't move my legs. I was firmly planted, seated on my bed.

"P-princess..." Amice started. "I-I'm so honoured you think of us as f-friends..." I looked at her from behind my bangs. She was shifting from foot to foot, her hands were folded behind her back, and her face was flushed. "A-and I'd be glad t-to be called your f-friend...!" She nodded to herself and smiled like she was so sure of her words.

My head shot up and my jaw was moving up and down on it's own. I bet I looked like a gaping fish. Excitement and happiness filled my mind and I yelled out, "Yeah! So no more calling me princess! You'll call me Lucina, right!?" I jumped from my bed and was smiling from ear to ear. It was really immature of me, but I wasn't even that mature of a person in my past life. It didn't make much of a difference. I sort of switched between being mature or not depending on who I was around.

"O-of course p-pr-" I gave her a look, and she remembered what I would've liked her to do. "L-L-L-Lucina…!" I smiled and hugged Amice. She went still but hugged me back a little bit after.

I went to bed happier than normal that night.

The following week I started schooling. I was really anxious because it took place in the palace library. It may have been in my home, but it didn't make me any less scared. It was just another disguise for a prison.

When I arrived at the palace library, I was surprised it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My teacher was nice enough. She was firm but fair. Her name was Ms. Maven. She had long blonde hair and icy blue eyes and she wore a frilly white blouse with a red jacket, and a gray pencil skirt.

She taught me everything. Math, english, science, geography, etiquette (ew), and my favourite, history. It's hard to explain why history was my favourite subject, considering I was atrocious at it from before, but I think it was because it was so different here. People didn't fight wars with guns, they used medieval weapons, and not to mention we had pegasi and magic tomes.

I also got to learn more about the Hero-King and his army. In my free time, I'd read anything about Marth and his soldiers. They were all so interesting, I was disappointed to see that some of their stories were lost. After the wars they'd participated in, historians lost trace of some people. At first I was angry and thought the historians must have been really stupid to lose track of people so easily, but then I realized the conditions some must have lived in. It couldn't have been easy to keep track of everyone, and some documents must have been lost due to damages. But I was depressed I couldn't learn as much as I wanted to about it all.

Mother noticed how high my grades in history too so she'd let me take the more advanced history novels from the library. I was in heaven! History was a little more scary to learn about cause we still kind of lived in the same time (such a long time, yet no actual technological advancements?), but it was really interesting because we basically lived in the same time. I didn't appreciate being apart of history to the fullest back from before. I guess it's cause you don't know what the future will really be, but if I lived in the time I did now and knew of cool thing humans could do, I think I'd really work towards doing great things.

I was living history! I mean, everyone is really, but I knew what kind of advancements there were to make and that was the coolest. The advancements probably wouldn't have been the same (we have legitimate MAGIC), but it would be really awesome to see the whole world changing in any way.

My worst subject was etiquette. Being someone who was raised to be perfection incarnate, one would think I'd have high grades but I hated everything to do with etiquette. I try to be a nice person when I can but I really didn't think I needed to know about what fork to use in different situations. Sure, I'll be a princess, give me a tiara and everything, but I'm not going to pick the proper fork or knife or spoon, and use that to eat and then place my utensils properly to show respect. I will pick the utensil closest to me, eat with that, and place them how I please.

I hated etiquette. The classes were a pain. Ms. Maven knew it too so as an attempt to get my grades higher, she'd withdraw time from history and use the time for etiquette. I was a horrible student in that class. I didn't throw tantrums per say, but I'd cross my arms and turn away, while saying 'nope.' I did it so often, I was surprised Ms. Maven didn't throw a tantrum.

I was so happy when I came out of class, I skipped down the hallway, clutching a history book in my arms.

"Hello Mr. Ogma…" I muttered to myself. I threw the book up and did a cheerful little twirl. "What were you like…?" I caught the book and twirled again. I learned most of the names of the soldiers in Marth's army but I wasn't able to match them with their stories or faces. There weren't many pictures of their appearances, only descriptions when pictures weren't available. It was frustrating for me to picture them. I had a horrible imagination. Ogma could have had a hunch back for all I knew. But I was happy nonetheless. As long as I could learn about them, I had no problem.

I stopped my happy twirls once I heard crying. Was it Cynthia again? No, that wasn't a baby's cries, it was more mature than that, but who would be crying? Amice? She was shy enough, she probably would. I decided to walk toward the source, book still clutched in arms. My feet thumped as I moved steadily faster toward the sobbing. I was getting more worried. Whoever was crying, were they okay? I didn't know many people in the palace, but I liked to think they were like a second family. I didn't know them by name however, I'd help them if I could.

I found myself outside of the throne room, and not only was there someone sobbing, it sounded like someone else was consoling them too.

"I'll do my best to keep his legacy, leave everything to me." I recognized that voice, hardly. It was male but recognizable. I peeked around the corner of the pillar I was behind. I saw the cloak and knew who it was immediately, but why was Robin here? And what was the whole 'his legacy' about? No wait…. Don't tell me….

I peeked further around the corner and saw a lady crying into her hands. That wasn't Mum, was it…? Even so, the light brown hair in her head…. But that couldn't be Mother! She never cried like that! Mother was never…. like that….

Robin looked like he had a sudden realization and his head jerked towards my direction. I yelped as quietly as I could, which wasn't much, and hid behind the pillar on my toes. I closed my eyes hoping he didn't see me. My heart was beating in my chest. What should I do!? I couldn't run! Then they'd know I was eavesdropping! But I couldn't stay either! Either way I was stuck!

A hand dropped on my head and I opened my eyes slowly. I was still panicky.

"Lucina, good timing. I was about to call for you." Robin leaned over, his expression grave. He removed his hand from my head and motioned for me to follow him into the throne room.

Mother was still sobbing. I wanted to assume anything but the worst. There was no way it happened. I wouldn't take it.

"Here, you might want to sit." He said. He lead me to the second throne and sat me down. I was so anxious. I knew what was going to happen but I never wanted to hear it from anyone. "Your father…" He started and took a breath. "He-he's gone…." His face was empathetic.

I could feel tears well up in my eyes but for some reason my left eye was throbbing sporadically. It was so uncomfortable but ignored it in favour of my grief. I started crying and he wrapped his arms around me so that I was crying into his chest. He started rubbing the back of my head. He spoke soothing words to me.

I don't know how Mother felt. The love of her life was dead. I don't think I could cope with that. I wasn't about to compare my grief with Mother's, but knowing what a horrible future that would accompany Father's death made it worse.

Mother and I sobbed our hearts out.

I'm gonna try and shorten the author's notes at the bottom here so it doesn't occupy too much space. So, Chrom has died. I just really want to show you the inbetweens and everything, so sorry if it's all scrunched together. Other than that, sorry for not updating this for some time.

Question: Do you have any second or more languages?

My answer: I'm not fluent, but I know a lot of French. Canada, eh?

Reviews are love and motivation!