Lucina and Sumia exited the banquet. They walked across the hall and entered Sumia's personal bedroom. It has been a year since Sumia last saw this place, and she was ecstatic to see the room exactly the way she had left it. It was clear the maids took great care of it. The room was tidy, the books on her shelves were ordered exactly the way she wanted, all her lavish dresses hung elegantly in the closet without any folds. Even her desk, which was usually disheveled with papers about current affairs, looked immaculate without a speck of dust.
Lucina barely noticed any of these miniscule details. She was still conflicted on what to say to her mother. She knew she had to tell her mother about her covert relationship with Robin: there was no point in lying about that. However, she was unsure on whether or not to tell her mother about her pregnancy. Lucina knew her parents would find out eventually; the question going through her head was: is there still a way to get away with it before it was too late? She carefully analyzed her situation. Plan A of traveling back to her own timeline was already out of the picture.
She immediately thought of a Plan B: agree to Robin's marriage proposal in order to cover up the scandal. However, upon further thought, she quickly abandoned that plan also. The chance of Robin coming back was microscopic, and even then, Lucina did not know when or where he would reappear. The chances of finding him alive somewhere in Ylisse, Valm, Regna Ferox, Valm, or another distant continent tomorrow was about the same chance of finding a needle in a haystack. Factor in another month to travel back to the castle and prepare for a shotgun wedding, her stomach would already have told the entire story.
Then she immediately tried to formulate a Plan C: Just run away and disappear from the castle for a year? No, that would just cause great stress to her parents and the Shepherds. Her disappearance means Ylisse will launch a massive manhunt for her, draining the country's already low gold reserves from fighting three costly wars in the previous years. No, if she wanted to disappear, she needed a good excuse. Maybe tell her parents she was going to look for Robin? After thinking back and forth, Lucina came to the conclusion that this plan was also unfathomable. Lucina was pretty sure Chrom has already ordered Ylissian soldiers to be on the lookout for Robin, and she doubt her father would let her go out the castle if she used that excuse. After all, she was a member of the Ylissian royal family, and losing her would a tragedy.
Taking this into consideration, Lucina then thought about the consequences of telling her parents the truth. Chrom and Sumia have never gotten mad at her before. Even after that time Cynthia and I scared all the Shepherds into thinking that the Risen were infiltrating the camp, Chrom was not mad at them and was quick to forgive. My parents could probably forgive me for this too. But if Robin came back, she was sure it was going to be a different story. Chrom would probably castrate Robin for defiling his "precious, innocent daughter". That problem can be dealt later, and hopefully by the time Robin does come back, Chrom would no longer be mad about this situation.
There was also the implication of an unwed princess carrying a child. Lucina did not pay attention too much when her parents taught her about social decorum. The Risen were a more urgent matter to deal with. However, if she recalled correctly, premarital relationships were heavily stigmatized. How would the kingdom react? After thinking about the topic, she cast that worry aside. Beside the Shepherds and maybe a few servants who worked at the castle, nobody in the kingdom knew her true identity. A cover up story would be super easy to fabricate.
Finally, she considered how the other Shepherds and children would react. This thought went back and forth, and Lucina ultimately believed that they would be accepting of the situation. After all, she came back to prevent the world from falling into an apocalypse. This was just something that happened accidentally on the side. They can probably understand it was an honest mistake, right? I saved the world from destruction, why should they care who I slept with? After all, most of the Shepherds were married, and most of the children had their own crushes. I just need to frame the situation as me making a mistake and me getting careless with Robin that one night in Valm Castle. That's all it was. No other explanations.
"It will all be fine." Lucina convinced herself silently and finally made her decision, "I have been through worse situations in my life. Okay, I will just start off telling my mother my relationship with Robin. Then I will probably reveal the secret if she approves of us being together. Relax. This can't be worse than the time you got ambushed by Risen assassins."
Taking a deep breath, Lucina faced her mother and started off with the exact words when she revealed her true identity to Chrom.
"I don't even know where to begin."
"Look. I know you and Robin are trying to see each other behind our backs. You two obviously care for each other a lot. If I was to guess, you two were dating secretly. It would explain all those secret glances and blushes on your face when you see Robin at the dinner table. I guess it would also explain why Robin was so happy to be fighting alongside you."
"Um.. Uh.."
"Look Lucina. I'm your mother. I'm not going to get mad at you for dating Robin. I'll admit, he is pretty attractive himself. I am not…"
"MOTHER!"
"Oh sorry, maybe I shouldn't ramble on about Robin. After all, I am married to king of Ylisse. He would probably not be happy if I said that. But enough about me. So how much of what I deduced was true?"
"Well, it was a pretty good guess. I'll go a little more into detail."
Trying to stay composed, Lucina continued. "Also this is a lengthy story, so you should probably get comfortable, Mother."
Sumia did not know what story could take so long for her daughter to confess, but Sumia decided against interfering. "Let's just listen to this story first." she thought to herself. "After all, I never was there for my daughter when she was young; she grew up without a fatherly nor motherly figure, and we never had time to bond since we were at war all the time. Now would probably be a good time to start."
"Let me start from the very I first went back to your timeline, I believed the world could be easily saved. All I had to do was prevent the Fire Emblem from being stolen and the world will never have to see Grima's wrath. After stopping Emmeryn's assassination, I thought the world was safe and I successfully saved the future. I quickly learned it was not so simple. When Emmeryn still died a few weeks later simply under different circumstances, I began to question whether my actions had any effect, but I tried to stay optimistic. However, as my fortune of events turned from bad to worse, my outlook on the future dropped significantly. First, my attempts to find gemstones during the two years of peace between the Plegian and Valm Wars ended in failure. Second, the dreaded Valm War which I had hoped to avert occurred just like in my original timeline. It seemed like no matter what I did, I could only delay the inevitable. I myself was convinced of this fact. After the battle at Valm Harbor, I knew I had to talk to Robin personally. As the grand tactician of the Shepherds, he was responsible for all our battle strategies and our lives. In the beginning, I met with him privately and told him my inner thoughts, about the bleak future, how we cannot allow such a catastrophe to happen, and how I was getting discouraged from my failures and everything we did was probably going to end up useless anyways."
"Robin.. However.. he… he did not share my views. No matter how many failures occurred, no matter how hopeless it seemed, he was always optimistic that everybody would live through the entire war and seal away the evil infecting the land. He always told me we invested too much to fail. He told me the future is not written. He gave me hope. Hope there was a better future. And that future was actually possible. And most importantly, he promised me that everybody would survive the war. He promised me that Grima was not going to terrorize the world ever again."
"After coming from such a harsh future where I would worry everyday if that day was going to be our last, I was extremely skeptical of his claims. He was probably saying all of this to comfort me. I didn't see hope anymore. I just couldn't. But he… he never gave up. I could really tell his determination to change the future. To me, Robin signified the impossible. He defeated the all three divisions of the Valmese military and Walhart. And he did so in a manner that was both efficient and effective, without any Shepherd deaths. He changed my entire outlook on the future. Even the gemstones, which I had given up looking, seemed to magically appear in front of him."
She feebly continued, "In the original timeline, the Valm War took around five years. Around half the Ylissian army was killed. Although Walhart was defeated, we were not doing much better after the war. It was the perfect chance for Grima to attack us. We were so weakened by the war that resistance was futile. Grima roamed freely in the world. In fact, Robin managed to not only end the Valm War in less than a year, but with no Shepherd deaths and nearly the entire Ylissian army living to see another day."
"I always was fascinated and loved him for all he has done for us. I.. As the war went on, and as conditions began to improve, it was really at those moments when he cheered me up that I fell for him. We began meeting more and more secretly. After conversing more, he gave me flowers he personally picked for me. He professed his love for me. He even asked me to marry him, knowing full well that father would not approve. In my mind, I should have just walked away from him. But I.. I couldn't. It's a feeling I could not describe. I could have easily walked out of the tent that day, but my legs felt glued to the ground. Instead, I ran up to him and gave him a kiss. I profess my love for him too, but I rejected his marriage proposal for personal reasons. He was not even mad. He just told me that if I ever changed my mind to marry him, he will always have that offer ready for me. In return, I told him he was always welcome to talk to me and I personally promised him I will always be at his side until Grima's demise."
"Aww… Lucina, you… There was not a man I trusted more than Robin. You two would have been perfect together. Oh.. Sweetie, why didn't you just accept his proposal?" Sumia asked.
"I was too afraid of what you and father would have thought. It also didn't feel right in the middle of a war. And I also believed I had to go back to the future after the war was done, so it would have been pointless to be married for maybe a few months and disappear forever. " Lucina quickly responded. Sumia began to open her mouth to interject, but Lucina had already started telling the next part of the story before she could get a word out.
"Anyways, we met in secret whenever we could. It was hard. Robin, he was always with Chrom planning strategies for the upcoming battles. We could only really talk and see each other around dinner time at the tables when all the Shepherds met together."
Conveniently skipping the part where she tried to kill her lover, Lucina continued, "Even when the Fell Dragon actually appeared, he still believed in victory. He believed we still had a chance, no matter how infinitesimal, that Grima will be sealed away and never again threaten the world. We… In the end, even as he died, he… he kept his ultimate promised to me. That all Shepherds would survive and the future would not be controlled by Grima."
Sumia listened to her daughter's entire story. Even though she showed no emotions, she was in reality tearing up from her daughter's story on the inside. Even her years of reading romance and adventure novels did not prepare her for this.
"Now that he is gone, it feels like my heart broke into a thousand pieces. He.. he sacrificed himself… just so me and the other children could reclaim our lives. Lives we never had because of Grima.. He did all he could for us, and in the end, he was the one that had to die."
Composing herself, Lucina looked up to her mother and asked "Why? Why did he have to be the one to die? He was probably the only person that deserved to live for all he has done for us. He never took us as pawns in a chess game. Besides maybe Basilio that one time after the battle at Fort Steiger, he never accepted sacrifices from us just so we could win a battle. He kept all of us alive, but in the end he was the only one that died for it. It.. It just isn't fair…. I would have gladly taken his place. My life feels empty without him." Even though she was trying hard to hold back to her tears, they began to form in her eyes.
"Also, before he sacrificed himself, I.. I just wanted to tell him one last time… that I loved him, and that I changed my mind and I would agree to marry him…and we could probably have a great life together… but when I opened my mouth to speak, he.. he was not there anymore…. He… he just disappeared… in the mist…. along.. with… Grima.. I.. I don't know if he.. he's going to come back. I.. I miss him so much, even though it's been just a week. "
It was more that Lucina could bear. She fell on her mother's arms and cried while hugging Sumia as tight as she could. Tears began to fall uncontrollably from Lucina's eyes.
"It.. it just isn't fair… He deserved his happy ending… as every hero… deserved…. "
Lucina finally let out a loud scream of agony on her mother's arms. Lucina got so emotional that she even forgot about the worries she had moments ago: whether or not to tell her mother she was pregnant. Instead, telling this story to her mother just made Lucina forget everything. It literally felt like her heart just exploded. Emotions rushed throughout her body like hysteria.
"I… I should have stayed with him in that final fight with Grima instead of my father. I.. would have never let him sacrifice himself. I broke my own promise to him.. to stay at his side until Grima was defeated. If I didn't break my promise, he would still be here… right now.. in my arms… There will always be a way to deal with Grima in the future should he ever decide to rise again. I would have dealt the final blow on Grima. Our battle was proof that Grima can always be sealed away. I know it's selfish of me to think this, but… Robin… poor Robin… my love….. my sweet, sweet Robin…."
Lucina continued to cry uncontrollably on her mother's arm as Sumia ran her finger through her daughter bright, blue hair. Sumia was expecting Lucina to simply admit the two were secret lovers dating, but she never realized the story between the two could be so deep. In a rare moment, even Sumia never felt so lost at sea. This wasn't one of those cliché scenarios she read in her romance books. All her romance novels had happy endings, and this was a real life story that did not end happily ever after.
Thinking carefully about her next move, Sumia looked down at her daughter's face and knew that she had to be there for her. She listened to her daughter's every word carefully. The truth was, she was not even mad that Robin wanted to marry her daughter. Secretly, she actually was sad Lucina did not accept his proposal. They were destined to have a great life together. But she quickly cast those thoughts aside.
"This is going to be a long night", Sumia thought to herself, "But my daughter needs me now more than ever. I will spend all night here with her if I need to."