This is the last part. Thank you very much for reading. It truly means a lot to me.

Scene 5: Flowers

"Laurent."

The mage had been kneeling in a field of flowers, but upon hearing Lucina say his name, he turned his face away from the vivid blooms and looked toward her instead. "Lucina. It's pleasant to see you."

His eyes, as always, half-hid in the shade of his wide-brimmed hat, but the lower half of his face was awash in the orange brilliance of the setting sun. The contrast presented a slightly unsettling sight. But then, Lucina had been friends with him for years, so she was more or less used to it by now. "It's nice to see you too."

"Did you need me for anything, Lucina?"

"No, I was just taking a walk and happened to run into you here. The flowers are lovely, aren't they?" Standing in this expansive field, she found it hard to notice much else. The two of them were surrounded by an ocean of the little blooms, which looked even prettier bathed in the lavish sunset light. "It's nice to see a place so full of life, in the midst of all this war and chaos."

Laurent nodded. "Indeed. The fact that our army will soon have to march on, away from this charming location, poses quite a regrettable predicament, but I suppose this situation is the type for which souvenirs are intended."

She saw that he grasped a few picked flowers, holding their stems delicately between his fingers. "Going to bring a gift for your wife?"

"Yes. My mother recently taught me a spell that prolongs the fresh appearance of unrooted plants for considerably longer than the typical span of time, so I'm giving it a try. These should brighten our tent for a while yet – assuming I manage to perform the spell correctly. It doesn't appear too complicated, but one can never be quite sure on a first attempt."

Lucina glanced again at his hand, this time registering the fact that it was bare, devoid of the usual glove he wore. Aside from that, however, she saw no sign of magic at work, no aura of energy or light. "Are you in the middle of performing the spell right now?"

"It is the slow-acting and hard-to-notice kind. To be honest, I'm a bit worried that these flowers will start to wilt before the enchantment has settled." He shrugged then, as if brushing off the thought. "But what are you doing, simply standing here? You were taking a walk, were you not?"

"Yeah, I was. Well . . ."

"If I may join you? I was meaning to speak with you anyway."

"Oh. Of course."

Like most of the children of the Shepherds, they had seen each other often while growing up. Childhood was filled with visits where they'd gone together on walks like this. If Lucina looked back into her memories, she could envision a gallery of weather and settings that they'd encountered during their young adventures – sunny skies, cloudy skies, dust lands, grass fields. And all of these scenic images shared one trait: the presence of her companion. As with all her longtime friends, she could recall the way his appearance had evolved over the years she'd known him.

Now, however, their dynamic was different. She knew it for sure, even if the fact had so far gone unmentioned between them. Being around him no longer created an easy peace.

Nothing she should complain about. After all, she had brought the change herself, through her own actions. And for a very good reason. Still, though . . . As they walked, she kept silent, feeling too self-conscious to simply bring up whatever conversation topic wandered into her mind. Too self-conscious to even look at him, really. The few times she glanced his way, her eyes landed not on him, but rather on the few fair flowers he held in his hand. Their significance tugged at her thoughts, reminding her of the incredible path his life had taken.

"Hey," she said. Despite his claim that he wanted to speak to her, he hadn't said a word so far. Her curiosity outweighed her restraint eventually.

"Yes?"

"I, uh . . . How is the little bouquet?"

"Coming along well, so far as I can perceive."

She couldn't tell at all, but she rolled along with him. "Good. I admit, I'm surprised that Miriel would know a spell to preserve fresh flowers. It doesn't seem like the sort of subject that would interest her."

"Mother can display an unexpected range in her interests, on occasion," he remarked. He spoke fondly of her. Though their journey through time had been treacherous, he remained glad that it had given him the chance to get to know his mother better. "But you would know a thing or two about being surprising, wouldn't you?"

Lucina's hands clenched into nervous fists. Evidently, the tactician's coolness was rubbing off on the man who spent so much time with her. "You know, it is unlike you to be so oblique. I already have a good idea of what you intend to say to me, so you may as well say it."

He appeared caught off-guard. This, in turn, startled her, because she didn't know why he would react that way. "I had not realized that you wanted to discuss it so urgently. Forgive me for behaving in such a leisurely manner."

"It's not urgent, actually –" Lucina paused, unsure of how she wanted to finish that sentence. Surely things had never felt this awkward between them when they were younger, right?

Then again, maybe the awkwardness was generated entirely from her side. Perhaps she had only imagined Laurent's earlier coolness, because now he looked quite warm, with his sudden smile catching the sunlight. "Well, first things are first. I should offer you congratulations for your engagement to my son."

Most of the army had heard the announcement by now. A blizzard of beaming faces had already offered her their best wishes, but hearing the words in Laurent's courteous voice was something special, given his closeness to the situation.

"Thank you," she answered, pleased to feel the block of ice in her chest beginning to thaw. "You seem to be taking it well. I was worried you would think I'm strange."

"Strange? For what reason? Because of Morgan?" Laurent's smile turned wry. "Given who I have married, I am hardly in the position to criticize someone else for a time-travel romance."

Lucina remembered the chaos that had ensued after Robin and Laurent announced their plan to marry. The bafflement of the whole army had not seemed funny at the time, but it did now. For the most part. "Sure, but even if you know it in your head, your heart cannot help but feel protective, right? Everything is different when the circumstances involve your own child."

"He may be my child, but he is also an adult – nearly our age. He's capable of making his own choices."

The Laurent she knew growing up would have jumped to analyze every aspect of their quirky situation, possibly turning the discussion into a monologue while pondering the implications of a marriage between two travelers from different times, periodically pushing up his glasses with his fingers along the way. She found it interesting that his manner was now so serene. The man who strolled through the field alongside her, blossoms in hand, must have been mellowed by his marriage and fatherhood.

For his sake, she was glad. If he hadn't picked up this ability to be at peace, he would likely still be driving himself crazy over the impossible question of Morgan's origin.

Laurent had once admitted to her, during another of their walks, that he doubted a whole human lifetime would be enough to even begin speculating about where Morgan may have come from. The puzzle proved itself especially complicated, considering that their group's arrival in this timeline probably caused the creation of many new ones.

Morgan's history was riddled with so many blank spots, unable to be filled due to his amnesia. He did not usually think of himself as such, but in some ways, he really was a lost child – a tiny particle thrown into an infinitely vast pool of worlds upon worlds. But that did not define him. Lucina knew that what mattered most about him was his kindness and his inspiring personality and his bright mind, the pieces of who he was. She could love him even if his background stayed entirely foggy. And she bet that his parents felt the same way.

"Oh," she murmured.

"I'm sorry; what did you say?" Laurent said.

"Nothing."

He didn't push it. One of the benefits of knowing each other this long was that silence, even for fairly large stretches of time, could be acceptable.

Her decent mood was going down again. The reason she had quietly moaned into the cooling evening air was because she realized something about Laurent's new tranquility: she was almost certainly going to end up breaking it.

Morgan's face popped into her mind. He was lovely. He had always been, and he'd looked especially so when she met up with him hours after that bizarre board game. It had been just the two of them that time, standing in the shade of the wide tree, without Robin or anyone around. Merely seeing Morgan had given Lucina's heart the sensation of being squeezed. "I fear that I've made a fool of myself today," she'd muttered to him in a quick voice.

"The conversation could've gone better," he admitted with a mild laugh. "But I don't think that scene was as bad as it felt in the moment. It's not like Mother started shouting at you or anything. Everyone got out without a scratch."

"Morgan . . . are you still . . .?"

"Of course I am."

He was still planning to disappear with her after the war, just as he'd promised.

"Look at me," she implored. "Do you seriously think this is worth it?" She did not need to warn him that he was rarely, if ever, going to see his parents again if he followed her down this uncertain path. He knew.

"You're determined to leave, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"I'm determined to stay with you, wherever you go." He looked at her with bold fire in his eyes, as if he would gladly spin out the rest of his days without ever tearing his gaze away from her. As if he could endure any amount of pain just to be with her.

The face that had made her believe in his commitment remained burned in her memory ever since. For now, though, Lucina shook her head to dispel it, trying to return to the present moment. Notice the grass, the sunset, the bespectacled father walking beside her.

She asked Laurent, "Are you still planning to go on that expedition around the world, after the war ends?" In their talks, he sometimes mentioned wanting to go on a journey, in hopes of meeting his mother's intellectual standards.

"Yes. Robin continues to voice concerns about being away from Ylisse for an extended period, but I am confident that given enough time, the post-war work will settle down enough that the Exalt will not need her as often. We'll be free to travel. We were planning to take Morgan with us, actually, but in light of recent events, I think it more likely that he will travel with you, instead."

She tried not to let him see how that comment disconcerted her. So, Laurent guessed correctly that she intended to travel. But did he (or Robin, for that matter) know that she was also planning to sever all ties along the way?

The children from the future had discussed very little about their individual plans with each other, but Lucina had some good guesses as to what each person was doing after the war. Some of them intended to vanish, like her, but some of them planned to stay connected with their families from this time. Though Lucina may disagree with them, she did not blame the ones who chose to make themselves a part of this world. She understood. Laurent, in particular, had an exceptional circumstance, being married to a woman of this era.

"Are you sure you're okay with me marrying Morgan?" Lucina blurted out. The passing thought of marriage, plus the guilt she felt at what she was eventually going to inflict upon Laurent and Robin, had made her ask.

"I was under the impression that I had already confirmed my approval."

"Yes, and I trust you. But I just want to make sure. You needn't hold back your true feelings for my sake, you know." She thought something in his shaded eyes flickered at that statement, but he didn't speak up, so she pressed on. "If you have any doubts about Morgan and me, you can voice them now, so I can clear them and hopefully give you some peace of mind." At least for now.

"My mind is perfectly at peace in regards to this matter."

"Really?"

"He is my adored son, Lucina. I am happy with all that makes him happy."

To that, Lucina said nothing.

Laurent stopped walking suddenly. Seeing this, Lucina halted too, and watched as he looked at the flowers held in his ungloved hand. Whatever had made him pause, apparently turned out to be nothing, because after a moment he nodded in satisfaction. The blooms were still coming along as expected.

"I bet Robin will be impressed with your work on that spell," Lucina commented.

He looked at her then. He wore a peculiar expression, closed-off, like a shuttered window. And yet it possessed a definite focus, as well, compelling her to keep looking back at him. They held each other's gaze for an awkwardly long time, until he abruptly cut the tension by beginning to laugh.

"What?" She was dumbfounded.

"Sorry." He composed himself. "Ever since I heard of your engagement, I've been considering whether I should mention it to you. I think I will. No harm in it."

"Mention what to me?"

"I used to dream of marrying you, myself."

In the moments between when he said the words, and when their meaning finally sank in, the very air around them seemed to shift. The world teetered on the cliff's edge, and though it soon regained its balance, everything looked to her a bit different than before.

Her answer ended up as: "I didn't know."

"I'm not surprised to hear that. I expended great effort to hide my feelings from you. Actually, wait, I take that back. I am surprised. I always felt as though you could see right through me. Perhaps that was only a figment of my imagination, however."

"It must have been," she replied, faint with amazement at how the conversation had turned. "I never saw through you. I never imagined that you wanted me as anything more than a friend. How long . . . ?"

"The majority of our childhood."

"So many years? You never told me!"

Out of the blue, his free hand jerked upwards toward his oversized mage's hat. However, a second later he caught himself and lowered his arm again. Watching that aborted action startled Lucina almost as much as his confession. It had been years since she'd seen that gesture. He used to compulsively remove his hat around her, as a sign of respect to the princess. She thought the too-formal habit had been long buried under their established friendship.

"In all those years that I watched you with silent admiration, it never occurred to me to tell you how I felt," Laurent said calmly. "I am a common man and you are an exalted princess. In my perception, our incompatibility was obvious." He paused. Lucina thought that he was taking a moment to reflect in somberness, but then she noticed the slight shaking of his body and realized he was stifling another bout of laughter. "Clearly, my son never had the same reservations as I did."

She threw her hands up in the air, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Laurent, have you ever once heard me talk about station? I only care about what's in your heart, not your parentage! If you had just told me . . . well, I'm not sure how I would've reacted, but I certainly wouldn't have dismissed your feelings as if they were nothing."

"Yes, I realize that now." His voice, his mannerism, everything about him gave off an air of serenity. His revelation about Lucina had come too late, but not because she had found someone else – but because he did. After their group's arrival to this timeline, he ended up falling for Robin, and he showed no regret about the unexpected way his fate had changed.

Yet Lucina felt guilty anyway. It seemed like her royal status, which she had not chosen, had caused her to unknowingly rob Laurent of his confidence. It had returned to him by now, clearly, but the chances of the past were still lost.

He must've guessed her thoughts from her expression, or from the way her shoulders sagged. Determined to make his current feelings known, he stated it bluntly, in a firm voice: "Lucina, I am in love with Robin. I loved you as well but it was never quite the same. I harbor no regrets about you. I . . . I hope you do not take offense at hearing that."

"No offense at all." As she looked at him, backlit by the receding sunlight, a little smile made its way to her face, in spite of everything. "I'm glad that we both found people to love."

His answering smile carried a bright warmth that surely put her own to shame. "And I am glad that we continue to look out for each other, as friends and allies."

The end of the day was approaching speedily. Before they parted ways for the night, Laurent told her congratulations again for her engagement. He and Robin wished for the pair's happiness.

"You and Robin?"

"Of course. She is like me. Both of us only want whatever makes our son happy."

So Robin had decided to give her approval after all. The tactician hadn't mentioned it. Then, she may have guessed that Lucina would find out anyway, through her husband, the messenger.

"Listen," Lucina requested.

"Yes?"

She was still reeling from all the surprises of their talk, his confession chief among them. He continued to wear the comfortable smile of a man at ease, so remarkable for someone who'd braved a ruined future world. The sight reminded her of all the love he'd encountered in his life, both hidden and unhidden, expected and unexpected. Her eyes were pulled into the light, making her see that Laurent was tied to her more strongly than she ever knew. Even if his love for her had eventually faded under a new love for Robin, memories of how he felt in the past would always remain. To this day he was still fond of her.

Everyone was like that, weren't they? All her companions were closer to her than she would ever truly understand. They were going to be affected in ways that she would never see, once she disappeared. Her heart beat fast. The sound of ocean's waves crashed inside her ears. Through the whirlwind in her mind, she tried to imagine moments of the future, attempting to predict what would become of everyone, but that place showed only dark clouds. She could not know this future. She could not feel any part of it, besides the singular personality that weighed in her soul more than any other.

And so she told Laurent the only fact that she knew for sure: "I promise Morgan will be happy with me. I will make it happen."

END