"Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless" - Honoré de Balzac

I scrambled out of the way to find an arrow marking the spot I was previously in. I ducked with a squeal, missing the arrow that would have hit my forehead. I ran for the wall, tripping in the middle, though it proved fortunate as the next arrow narrowly skimmed my back. I stood back up quickly and annoyed. This was ridiculous! How was this-!? The next arrow hit me, this time striking me just a few centimetres under my heart. The arrow fell to the ground lamely, and I placed a hand where it had hit me, trying to remove the sensation of its blunt blow to my chest.

I sighed through my nostrils defeatedly. I hadn't even managed to top my last record... Remembering who was there, I addressed him, seeing red.

"That was not fair!" I griped, placing a fist on my waist and using the other one to wave at him angrily. "You went twice the normal speed halfway through!"

Virion, who was on the other end of the courtyard, walked towards me like he was a drunkard, swaying his bow with his entire body and tutted me, grinning insufferably, his French accent making him sound like an arrogant and pompous ass. "Ah, ah, ah! Milady, what did we say about things being fair on the battlefield?"

Virion, the 'legendary' archer. At least, that was what he liked to call himself, singing to the bards. Virion was... an interesting man. Slightly narcissistic though. And as suave as he thought he was, his words just sounded... dirty. I confronted him about this on several occasions, and rebuttaled, saying he was but a misunderstood gentleman.

I grit my teeth, twice as irritated as before. So irritated in fact, I didn't even bother to correct him not addressing me by my name. "That nobody will play fair," I growled through my teeth, wishing the look I was giving him would send him to the grave. "Still doesn't excuse the fact you upped the speed without warning…" I muttered, crossing my arms and puffing my cheeks.

He circled my body as if he was a predator, and I his prey, and gave a mock-affronted expression. "Princess... Are you perhaps mad...? Avec moi!?"

"What ever gave you that idea?" I bit sarcastically, my eyes trailing his every move up until he stopped. "In all seriousness though, why is it that you always anger me purposely in training? Are you always so irritating or do you just have that effect on people?"

Virion whirled around like he had taken an actual physical blow, making an almost over exaggerated expression, something between a wince and a grimace. "M-much like the lovely Sully I see... despite not being related at all..."

My lips became tight, and my body frozen at the mention of her name.

Sully had gone in battle recently and her Roster page already disappeared. It broke my heart he didn't know. If Virion wasn't informed of her death yet... Then I didn't know what to do... Should I tell him? Or should I just let him find out on his own?

"Speaking of Sully, I wonder... How is she?" He spoke to himself, adjusting his bow, letting the limb of it lean on his shoulder.

"Sully's..." I licked my dry lips. I should tell him, but... I backtracked... I couldn't tell him, especially if they were close. "...one of your comrades, right? You said, 'lovely Sully,' is she your wife or something?"

"Heavens no!" He exclaimed, smirking. "I've already a wife," He took off the armour covering his left hand to showcase a silver ring. It looked kind of cryptic. His wife's name was probably on the inside. "and although I'm not one to compare the beauty of two magnificent women, I don't think dear Sully could hold a candle to my darling."

"R-right, of course not..." I looked down to my feet guiltily. I hadn't been able to do anything for Sully.

I tried to appeal to the council so they would let me in on the war meetings, which was generally where all the battle tactics took place, and they hadn't accepted. Virion, being the head tactician, usually chose our units carefully, but he had been out of commission at the time. The results of that battle should have come in a few days ago from the leading member of that battle, but maybe the Risen were getting more intelligent and had figured out how to keep us from getting the results, leading us to an even more false sense of security than we already had, and in the end they'd kill us all.

I clenched my fists and started quaking in my boots. I should have tried to push for the war meeting harder. Sully probably had a family too, now they'd have to find out the horrible information that she died. It was my fault.

"Are you alright?" Virion asked, eyes narrowed on my shaking form. He must have noticed, he wouldn't have been asking if he hadn't.

"Yeah, of course!" I said after a short pause in fake enthusiasm, and we both knew it. "Hey, uh, we forgot to review my weaknesses again, right? L-let's do that!" I distracted us both. Virion's eyes lingered on me for a few moments before he sighed and relented.

"Now, you asked me why I anger you purposely in training, oui? You are a passionate young lady, and while passion is what drives us all, your enemies will be sure to use such a burning spirit against you. Even so, I did no such thing as to purposely antagonize you. You assumed I did, and your anger distracted you from dodging my last arrow. Your dodging abilities are quite remarkable on their own, even though you fell, you rebounded at a good pace, and you managed to dodge the first half until... Well, you know the rest." He smiled arrogantly, waving his index finger at me. "My recommendation would be to do your best to suppress any out of control emotions. Your emotions don't control you, you are the one in charge of your emotions. A good thing to remember, non?" Virion walked over to the weapon rack, where I laid Falchion for the time being, and picked out two wooden training swords.

"Now, let us dance!"

He quickly tossed me my practice sword and lunged, aiming his sword at my head, while I fumbled to get a grip on mine. I raised my sword just in time for Virion's strike, he was already putting me on the defensive. I struggled to push him back, and I realized I couldn't, Virion was much stronger in muscle than I was, but I had an idea. I gave away, stopping my pushing and let Virion fall over. He did as much as a stumble, but it still gave me time to strike to his side, which he quickly parried with the flat side of his wooden blade. He shoved me off and I stumbled backwards. He thrust his sword with one arm multiple times, like he was fencing, and I was forced to dodge, swerving my entire body around. He was holding me at a distance, and I could use that to my advantage. I dodged his last strike and ran for it, he would be open momentarily, and I slashed vertically, over his head. He blocked with little struggle. We traded a few more blows, with each of us getting good hits on each other, Virion landing the majority of them. None of them were 'killing blows' however.

By the end, Virion had his sword to my neck, grinning to himself victoriously. "Do you yield?"

I was bruised and battered, breathing raggedly. I'm sure if we used actual swords, I'd be keeled over and bleeding very heavily. "I... I yield..." I panted, my arms hanging limply by my sides.

"I reviewed you for our previous skirmish, I do believe it's time for you to review yourself. So? Milady, what have thou analyzed?"

I swallowed sharply. If I compared my incomplete sword style to Virion's style, I could come up with an answer I could even use for future references. "Your style consists of a mesh of slicing and striking, while favouring striking more. It resembles fencing somewhat, a noble pursuit, and reflects your personality, I think... You seem to plan your strikes, like each hit is almost calculated. In my style, I barely strike, and I mostly slash. I neglect to plan my moves, unlike you. During our duel, you used your superior strength over me, you were challenging me to find a way to topple you instead of you toppling me. I was able to undertake your challenge for a little while by seeing I wouldn't be able to overpower you, so instead I used your weight against you. In the end, my lack of planning rounded on me, and you cornered me, and 'killed me,' so to speak. Overall, in a real life situation, I might be able to take one or two weaker troops, but anyone stronger and I'll be dead." I said solemnly. I thought Virion would be more inclined to slashing since he was a bow knight, which meant he was used to swordplay mounted a horse, but Virion clearly had skill on or off of a mount.

Virion put a hand to his head and shook it disappointedly. "A child and already prepared for her death, talking about taking lives... It's quite sad isn't it?"

It was sad in a way. From his perspective anyway, maybe in mine too. I was almost prepared to throw away my life if I had to. Almost. There were still somethings I was obligated to do, things I could do, but if I were in a situation where only me or another were to live, I'd like to think I'd choose my comrade, as it was though, I was still a coward.

"You certainly have little trust in yourself, don't you think, Monsieur Frederick?" Virion looked towards the castle wall's entrance and my heart leapt. After so long, Frederick was back?! Doubt started to creep into my mind, there was no way Frederick was back already, what about his family? But then the door opened and I could see a dark blue tunic peeking out.

"Frederick!" I cried, slamming into him and curling my hands around his waist. "You're back!"

He laughed as he walked us into the courtyard, me walking backwards on his feet. "Yes, I am."

"When did you get back?" I bet my face was lit up with curiosity and happiness. It was definitely how I felt.

"Only a week ago," He brushed my hair with his large hand.

I pouted. "Why didn't you come see me sooner?"

"I had my duties to aide your sister in handling her lance," He lifted me off his feet and planted me on the ground firmly.

I rubbed the back of my head. "Yeah, I guess you would have to. Cynthia hasn't gotten any practice in for sometime, so I bet she's glad to see you too!" I smiled widely.

"Impressive how your personality can change in an instant. From that of an adult to a child's." Virion commented in the background, tapping his boot almost apprehensively.

I sent him an annoyed look, fixing my glare on him until I had a teasing idea. "Hey Frederick, Virion never calls me Lucina," I whined, "Can you make him?"

"Is that so," He hummed, closing his eyes, and giving Virion a chilling smile. "Milady Lucina was quite adamant on having most, if not all of the members of her staff, call her by her given name. It wouldn't be much of a difference if you were asked to do the same, would it, Virion?"

I almost fell over by how intimidating Frederick was being, even over a childish request like mine. I couldn't imagine what Virion felt. He seemed content in responding with a tight lipped smile, and flicked a strand of hair back in place.

"That's quite an exaggeration, isn't it? I'm by no means an official member of staff for the princess, alors... Uh... Frederick, have I ever told you how dazzling of a smile you have?" Virion was sweating bullets, and I chuckled quietly.

"Now then," Frederick gestured to me, "what is her name?" There was a tone of a command in there. Frederick was being completely serious, and this was complete deadpan humour. I loved it.

Virion chuckled disconcertedly, playing with his bow. "Well, I do believe the young lady's name is... L-Lucina...?" He coughed. "Anyway, Mila-" Frederick smiled, "I-I apologize. ...Lucina... We scheduled two sparring duels instead of the normal one, would you care to partake?"

A second spar? Normally, the way my training sessions worked was that there were two minor exercises followed by two heavy exercises, examples of the former two being simple swinging and awareness (like awareness of movement, of both myself and an enemy), and examples of the latter two being dodging and sparring. Sometimes, we changed it up to keep things fresh, and in any case, they all had me panting by the end of it, especially when they were designed by Frederick (he was still insistent on all the pushups, situps, and an added exercise before he left: suicide runs). I didn't know if I could do a second spar though. My muscles were aching and I was sure I'd collapse if I was going to do another, especially if things worked out the same way they did last time.

The humorous air we had vanished and was replaced with contemplation. "Um, are you sure we should do another one? Could we maybe have a brief rundown, and then let me decide?"

Virion smugly grinned as he bowed down to my height. "And where would the fun be in that? Don't you like surprises?"

"No, I don't," I glared. "That would put me at a disadvantage, and I don't like disadvantages," Not only was he a professor of swordplay, he also drilled basic tactics into me, scenarios and the like.

He sighed and straightened himself upward. "Despite telling you one should work around their problems, I suppose I did teach you that… Fine!" He relented. "We were going to have you spar with Frederick." I looked towards him warily. Me fight with Frederick? I'd get crushed! With the time apart from him as well, his style could have changed completely, and if that was the case, it would take more than one spar for me to get used to it, and to counter it.

I voiced these thoughts aloud to them both, trying to explain why a second spar, especially with Frederick, would be a bad idea. My arguments proved inefficient however, as I stood across from the Ylissean knight, him with a wooden axe in his hand and me once again with a wooden sword. He was certainly giving me a weapon's advantage, maybe because I said I didn't like to be disadvantaged, or he was testing me on how I would approach an advanced axe user. Either way, I didn't find it favourable.

My eyes narrowed on Frederick and he reciprocated the action slowly. Virion started our countdown, speeding up at the end. I had no time to even feel annoyance, Frederick was charging at me straight on, and fast. He jumped with an overhead strike. I blocked, but I felt all of his weight being pushed against me, like Virion earlier, and my knees felt as though they were going to buckle. Frederick jumped back before I could try giving away. He had me on the edge at the beginning, why let up? No matter, Frederick jumped back on me, the arcs of each swing getting faster and harder to dodge. He wasn't giving me a chance to block, let alone slash back at him. He was vicious, swing after swing, it felt like I died, soul ready to float off, and then plummeted back into my body. My body was still aching, and my knees finally collapsed on themselves. I had to keep going. I managed to kneel at least, and waited for Frederick to strike again. I clenched my fist around the wooden grip, and placed my hand on the central ridge. This was my final stand. I closed my eyes in anticipation for a last powerful push. It never came. My weapon was lifted from my hands.

I looked at Frederick in confusion. "Why didn't you finish it off?" He didn't land any killing blows.

I frowned at his back while he put away our weapons. In the entire time I trained with either Virion or Frederick, we always ended with a lethal hit. "You've taxed yourself, haven't you?" He inquired out of nowhere. He wasn't answering my question and he wasn't facing me.

"Y-yeah," I answered automatically, even though I wouldn't go so far as to say I was taxed.

"Why don't you make yourself tea?" He was standing up straight, facing the direction of the trees in the courtyard. His hands were folded behind his back, and his tone almost seemed... strained.

I nodded thoughtlessly and walked back into the palace. Frederick didn't seem alright, something was up and it wasn't good.

I found Amice and asked her to draw me a bath, as I was drenched in my own sweat, and I had an event coming up. Another council meeting, this time regarding progress in the stealth mission. It was almost like a war meeting I guess, like a prep meeting for the real deal, which I wasn't 'mature enough' for.

In waiting for my bath, I was halfway done boiling a pot of tea with my tea leaves when I realized I forgot Falchion in the courtyard. Normally, I wouldn't think much of it-Frederick or Virion could perfectly hand it to me, they must have seen it already-but recent events had me paranoid. So paranoid, I feared some of the worst possibilities. With the position the enemy was in, they could attack the capital at anytime. An attack on the castle was unlikely, and while it wouldn't be easy to go in and kill us all, it wouldn't be the hardest thing either.

I needed Falchion right away. If not for protection, then for comfort. Falchion... It was hard to explain why I was so attached to it, the emotions were hard to translate into words. I felt it had to do with wars in which historical figures and my father chose to partake. But wars weren't what made it. It was the many people the same blade protected, the many wars it ended, the many things it had witnessed. And if I didn't have it in the situation our country was in, I'd be dead, literally and figuratively.

I walked briskly, trying not to appear so panicked in front of the staff around me. The staff didn't always respect me as much as they did. At first I was seen as the little brat, but soon enough my conviction and dedication shone through. I was only beginning to become a leader, and I didn't want to worry them about anything. They had enough on their plates.

I rounded the corner quickly, ready to claim my Falchion back, when everything just stops. I grab onto the corner, and I shake a bit because the momentum hasn't fully left my body until it did. And I stared at the door I just had to enter to get my rightful heirloom. But there was a kid in the way, peaking in the courtyard.

The kid had short, dark brown hair, and it looked like it was all pushed to the back, kind of messy honestly, and his eyes were a pretty chocolate brown, very deep, and also very compassionate looking. The kid was wearing all black. Black tunic, black trousers, and black shoes. I briefly wondered whether he'd overheat in that quickly in the sun, cause, you know, black absorbs light.

But I pushed the thought aside and strode up to the door, inches behind the kid who I assumed was a boy.

"What are you doing?" I hissed softly. I was not in a good mood. With my hair and clothes damp from sweat, and paranoia eating me up, I thought I had a right to be.

He jumped with a silent squeak, and whipped around. I stepped back slightly to avoid his hand hitting me. "W-what are YOU doing?" He reiterated, probably too shocked with my appearance he had nothing else on his mind.

"I'm going out to get my sword," I pointed at the door with a lazy expression.

"Y-you can't do that!" He was waving his arms all over the place and he soon became red in the face.

I growled, "It's my castle, I can do whatever I want." I was about to push past him, then he put both of his hands on my shoulders to keep me from moving. He wasn't much taller than me, se even if he was a bit shorter, he could still keep me.

"N-no! You don't understand!" He was struggling and I was about to seriously hurt him if he kept getting in my way.

"Don't understan-!?" He moved one of his hands to cover my mouth, and I thought, if he was only using one hand I could easily-

"What compelled you to have her leave so abruptly, Frederick?"

That was Virion's voice. Slowly, before I knew it, the boy stopped trying to move me backwards, and we both hung onto every word spoken, behind the courtyard door.

"You saw her eyes did you not?" I imagined Frederick was sneering. "Those were not the eyes of a little, twelve year old girl. Those were the eyes of someone who was ready to lay their life. She was waiting for me to strike, and she offered her sword. Lucina was ready to die."

They were talking about... me? Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see the dark haired kid looking at me strangely, like I was an anomaly. He mouthed, "You're Lucina?" and I nodded back, and motioned back to the conversation between the archer and the knight.

"Did it remind you of something?" Virion sounded knowing, and I could see him waving his hand at Frederick in the fashion he always did. "Something warlike?"

There was a pregnant pause, and Frederick broke it, sighing with a shudder. "It… was hell out there. We've fought the Risen before, but the circumstances were much more drastic. Either they die, or a whole country dies. They've no fear of death, and all that speaks are their red, beady eyes. When I noticed Lucina ready to accept her death, it only served as a reminder of what agony we narrowly escaped."

"So it's true then?" Virion's voice was brittle, as if he was going to break. Like water pounding on a dam about to break.

My eyes widened as it all came to sense in my mind. No way… A whole country… I looked down at the kid to see him gaping and his eyes watering. I reached out to him, going to wipe the tears running down his face, "Hey, hey, you're alright, you're gonna be-" I whispered, and Frederick's voice continued on, stopping me from speaking anymore.

"Yes," Frederick said, "Rosanne has fallen,"

Immediately, the kid ran out the door, slamming it and started screaming, "No! No! That's not true! Tell him it's not true, Dad!"

All of us, Virion, Frederick, and I looked at him in pity. The kid's face twisted from sorrow to wrath, his eyes trained on Virion. "You bastard! You should have been there, damn it! You COWARD!" And he ran off.

"Wait, Gerome!" Frederick cried, reaching out his hand in vain. The kid, Gerome, was already gone. His hand dropped, and he and Virion, both, turned to look at me.

My mind just exploded with shock, so I stumbled out a messy apology. "I-I'm so s-sorry, I didn't mean to…"

Virion shook his head. "It's fine." It wasn't.

Frederick looked crushed. His son had just heard the blunt and blatant truth, straight from the horse's mouth, something he was probably going to save for another time to tell him, or maybe not at all, because I knew adults, and adults would hide all the bad things from their children if they could.

"I-I can go after him," I offered hesitantly, because this was a very delicate situation, and Gerome probably didn't want to be near either of them. His reaction to me probably wouldn't be that great either, but less worse than to his father or, whatever Virion was to him.

Frederick was looking at his boots. "Yes, thank you." He responded monotonously, not in the funny deadpan way where he'd sound side splittingly funny, but this was actual monotone, with no feeling or reason whatsoever. He truly was crushed.

I nodded silently, getting away from the two men outdoors and all the tension there. I was getting away from what happened there and was about to enter a heartbroken boy named Gerome.

And, forgetting all about Falchion, I ran.

This is actually pretty last minute with the last few paragraphs, because tomorrow I start school again. I don't know what that'll mean for update times, but I'll try to keep to one chapter a month, and if school work slows me down, sorry guys! Also for the guys who have started already, and are also going back, good luck! We'll make it through together and adapt as we go along!

Anyway, this chapter is also kinda a warm up for fight scenes, so as it's training for Lucina, it kinda is for me too! I hope I got Virion's character alright, and Frederick's too! Gerome's kind of a kid, but on the wiki it said he was a shy kid, but he's a little more grown up in this, so I don't know what to say for that. It's also obvious that Frederick is married to Cherche, but can you guess who Virion is married to? It was a small detail in this chapter, but I wouldn't be able to give any hints without giving it away. I think it's kind of obvious too, but then again, I don't really know how you guys react to this stuff. I'm not going to say if you guys get it right or not, and his wife will have a pretty moderate roll in a future chapter. I have all the ideas, I just need to type them up!

The next chapter will have two key events, really. The first one is Gerome, duh, and the other will be with Libra.

Question: Who did you pair Frederick and Virion with?

My answer: First playthrough was Frederick and Lissa, and Virion and Cherche. Second playthrough was Frederick and Panne, and Virion and Olivia, I think. Olivia is not his wife in this story, by the way! It's not that easy! ...I hope...

Reviews and love are motivation!