Chapter 15

Bright and early the next day, the shepherds had loaded their things upon the warships, and were all split up amongst them. Nathan stood behind Lissa and Morgan, who were eagerly looking over the ship's railing and out onto the vast ocean surrounding them.

"Sure is breathtaking out here," The tactician muttered, looking out at the expansive sea. "Almost makes you feel like our troubles are far away."

"…Yet, in truth, we're headed straight for them…" Chrom muttered, walking up next to the man. Lucina was following close behind.

Lissa turned around, sticking her tongue out at her older brother. "Hey, the rest of us are trying to enjoy ourselves here! Stop being such a buzz kill!" The princess whined.

Nathan and Morgan laughed as the two butted heads. Something then clicked in Nathan's mind as he then turned to Lucina.

"Say, so if Morgan's from another timeline, like we think she is, does that mean there's a Morgan from your timeline out there somewhere too, that came back with you?" The tactician wondered aloud.

Lucina shook her head in reply. "…Unfortunately, Morgan doesn't exist in our timeline…" She replied glumly. "By the time you died, Nathan, Morgan had yet to be conceived. So I guess there was never any chance of her coming into existence."

Chrom scratched his head. "So, then, how do we know that Morgan is even your child?" He asked Nathan and Lissa. Morgan flinched slightly, taken aback by Chrom's slight accusations, as her parents stepped in front of her, as if to protect their daughter from harm.

"Hey now! That's a bit of a rash accusation, don't you think?" Lissa retorted with a glare.

Lucina stood for a moment, thinking to herself, before muttering. "But…it's not wrong…"

The others turned to her.

"Well…we don't really know if Morgan is your child, because she doesn't exist in my future, and there's no proof of her coming from the future in the first place-"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Morgan called out, pushing her way in front of her parents.

"What is it?" Nathan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Morgan pulled up the sleeve of her tactician's robe. On the upper part of her arm sat a mark that was divided in two, half of it was the brand of the Exalt, and the other half was the mark that was on Nathan's hand.

"I've had this since birth," Morgan explained. "And while I don't remember what this half is supposed to be (She motioned to the side with the brand), I know this weird thing here is the same one on my dad!"

Nathan held up his hand, looking at the mark, and then back at Morgan's arm. "She's right…it's an exact match. But how did you get the brand?"

Chrom gave the man a confused look. "Um…your wife?" He replied, rolling his eyes. Lucina laughed softly.

Nathan laughed sheepishly as he replied, "Oh, right. Sorry, Liss…"

Morgan, Lucina, Chrom and Nathan all turned to the Cleric, expecting some sort of snarky remark towards her husband. Instead, Lissa stood in shock, not saying a word.

Morgan waved her hand in front of the woman's face. "Er…Mother? You in there?"

"The brand…you have the brand…" Lissa faintly muttered.

"Yeah, yeah, she's got a fancy tattoo. Now, what's the point of-" Nathan started before he was cut off by Lissa suddenly squeezing Morgan in a hug and jumping up and down, tears starting to flow from her eyes.

"You have the brand! Oh, I'm so happy for you, Morgan, my little girl!" The Princess cried out, squeezing her daughter.

Nathan scratched his head confusedly. "Okay, so she has the brand. Doesn't everyone from your-" He began, before cutting himself off, remembering a previous conversation with Lissa.

-TWO YEARS AGO-

"So, you've asked enough questions about me…what about you?" Nathan muttered to Lissa while scribbling down notes on a map of Regna Ferox. The princess was lying down on Nathan's bedroll, lazily playing with her blonde pigtails. The princess had come to the tactician's tent earlier in the night to talk with him, and, after pulling off a prank on him, decided to keep the man company. She at least owed that to him after ruining one of his newer strategy books, drenching it in ink. Not to mention the fact that he was one of her favourite people to be around in the shepherds, and had a huge crush on the man.

Lissa shrugged nonchalantly in response to Nathan's question. "There's not much to know about me…" She admitted, frowning glumly.

Nathan turned around from his desk, putting down his quill and rolling his eyes. "Are you kidding?" He replied. "You're a Princess, talking to an amnesiac. There must be loads of things you can tell me that would surprise me!"

Lissa blushed, sitting up and folding her arms while glaring at the man. "Just because I'm a princess doesn't make me an interesting person!" She snapped.

Nathan rubbed his head sheepishly. He could feel his face turning red as he replied, "I dunno, from what I've seen of you, you're a pretty cool person…"

Lissa's glare softened as she lowered her arms. "I'm not even really sure if I'm royalty…" She confessed, whispering softly.

The tactician raised an eyebrow, giving her a confused look. "Is this about you not acting like royalty? I thought Chrom already talked to you about that, it doesn't matter how you act, everyone likes you and respects you, which is all that you should really care about."

Lissa shook her head, her voice starting to waver. "No…not that." She mumbled in reply. Nathan got up out of his chair and joined Lissa on the bedroll.

"Okay, what is it then?" He asked warily, not wanting to 'snoop' into the Cleric's private life, but also wanting to know what she had a problem with, as he cared deeply about her.

"It's…the brand…" Lissa whispered to him.

Nathan tilted his head slightly before piecing things together. "…You don't have one." He replied.

Lissa nodded. "Chrom has always insisted that mine just never surfaced…but even so, I always worry…I never knew my parents…and what if they aren't even mine?"

The tactician thought for a moment, before very lightly and playfully slapping Lissa in the head.

"Hey!" The Princess replied, "What was that for?"

"Chrom always does that to me when I do something dumb, except much harder."

Lissa blushed, pushing the man away slightly. "It-it isn't dumb!" She replied, flustered.

Nathan frowned. "Well, let me explain why I think that's dumb then." He told her. "It's just some mark. Say you're right, and they aren't your parents. Does it really matter? You grew up with Chrom and Emmeryn, not with them. And even if those two aren't really your siblings, would you ever treat them differently?"

Lissa shook her head, sniffling slightly.

Nathan then continued. "On top of that, you can't let yourself get consumed by something like that. Imagine if all I cared about was this stupid mark on my hand, and what it was supposed to be…it certainly wouldn't be good, would it?"

Lissa shook her head again, before sighing loudly. "You…you're right. I shouldn't worry about that so much."

The tactician smiled at her. "That's good. It's not like you need to forget all about it, cuz as dumb as these marks are, they look kinda cool-hey!"

Lissa had slapped Nathan in the head after his snide remark as she giggled softly. "Just trying to keep you in line, Mr. Tactician!" She teased.

Nathan rubbed his head, groaning slightly. "I swear, one of these days someone is going to slap me and my brain is gonna fall out…"

Nathan came back to reality when Basilio called out to the group. "Hey! Chrom, Nathan! Get yourselves over here! We've got a problem!" The warrior yelled. The tactician nodded as he and Chrom walked over to the man.

"What is it, Basilio?" Chrom asked curiously. The West-Khan was standing with Flavia and Frederick.

"Our Pegasus knights have reported back in, and the Valamese have sent a fleet out here to try and cut us off," He replied.

"Their fleet matches ours, ship for ship, except…" Frederick muttered.

"…Except what?" Nathan asked.

"Their ships are packed with the bastards. They outnumber us by a ridiculous amount in terms of troops." Basilio spat.

"If we attempt to board their ships, we'll be slaughtered…" Chrom muttered.

Flavia nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately, we have little choice but to try." She confessed. "The Plegians could spare no men, but these ships are stocked with supplies…most prominently, they are filled with barrels of oil. Perhaps our clever tactician could find a use for that?"

The others turned to Nathan, who rubbed his chin in concentration. "That could prove useful…"

Flavia scratched her head. "If we could burn their ships, they'd have nowhere to run to. We could-"

"Are you insane, woman? We'd get roasted like hams!" Basilio angrily snapped.

"That, and we have no catapults. We don't have a way to get their ships lit without getting caught in the blaze ourselves…" Frederick added.

Chrom turned to Nathan. "Anything?" He asked. Nathan nodded.

"I have a plan."

Basilio grinned. "Now, that's what I like to hear!" He exclaimed. "What did you have in mind, boy?"

"It involves us all roasting like hams."

Basilio's grin quickly faded, but he nodded solemnly. "I know better than to disagree with your ideas, Nathan."

Nathan nodded, smiling slightly at the man. "For the record, I was half joking by saying that. If this plan goes the way it should, we shouldn't get roasted…"

"Alright, you tell us what to do Nathan, and let's get started!" Chrom declared.

The flashback was a reference to a part in 'The Princess and her frogs', the prequel to this story. If you haven't read it yet, I'd suggest it. Not to shamelessly plug my own work, but a lot of the events in this story are direct follow-ups to what happened in the first story. Anyways, thanks for reading, and thanks to the Guest who gave me the idea about Morgan's brand!

-Nate