Short chapter due to writer's block and work:

Lucina extended her hands outwards as white magic particles fell from the sky and unto her sword. As more rained down, her falchion glowed brighter and brighter into a binding white fireball. When it was at full power the sword flashed a bright golden light that illuminated the entire courtyard. While its power did not awaken the blade like it did for Chrom in the sacred field, it still radiated off an immense amount of energy that only the Divine Dragon herself could create.

Taking a deep breath, Robin lifted his right hand up with his thumb sticking out on the top. A second later Lucina carefully tilted the sword so it touched his thumb and gently cut into the flesh where a small trickle of blood seeped out. Instantly, the energy imbued in the sword flooded into Robin's body from his hand and pulsed through his veins as it occupied every cell in his body.

Robin's reeled back like he had been struck by lightening and came crashing to the ground on his back. His entire body felt tingly and he couldn't feel his legs, but at least he appeared to be still alive.

"Robin! Are you okay?!" Lucina called out in shock and ran over to him in a hurry.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Robin grunted in pain and clutched his stomach. "I am having a little trouble feeling my legs though."

Lucina looked up at Tiki in concern but the manakete replied back calmly, "His body is trying to adjust to the protective barrier that is now surrounding him. He should regain control over his legs in a few minutes."

"Good." Robin sighed and slowly rested his head on the grass below him.

"So is the process complete?" The princess asked anxiously. "Will he be okay for now and the foreseeable future?"

Tiki nodded back at her and said, "By the end of the week he should return to his former strength."

Lucina exhaled in relief as a massive burden eased off of her chest. "That is great news."

"I must apologize that I can not bring better tidings. Once this barrier breaks my mother will not be able to create another one. The curse will slowly build power as it draws energy from the shield instead of Robin's life force. This is merely a delaying mechanism as the curse gets stronger."

"Delaying mechanism or not, it gives me another fifteen years to spend with my family. For that I am eternally grateful." Robin said as he bent his knees and accepted Lucina's hand to help to pull him back on his feet.

"Perhaps by then we will find another way to stop the curse." Lucina added hopefully.

Tiki looked down at the ground and stared at the grass in a long trance "It is possible." She looked back up at the two as Lucina helped Robin regain his balance.

"But now that this is taken care of I would like to speak to Morgan. Would it be possible for me to visit her tomorrow?"

"Of course." Robin nodded back and said, "You can visit her right now if you-"

"I am afraid it will have to wait for another day. There is some things that I would like to ponder in further detail before discussing them with her."

"Very well, I suppose I have a lot on my mind as well."

"I imagine you both have a lot you wish to discuss. So I shall take my leave."

"Okay. Thank you Milady." Robin bowed and nearly tipped over as he struggled to regain his footing.

Lucina followed with a more coordinated and graceful bow, "I can not express my thanks to you Milady. You have truly blessed us with your boundless generosity."

"Funny." Tiki shook her head and softly move the side of her lips to almost form a smile. "My mother and I are the ones that failed to protect your world and yet you thank us for something that we once again cannot fix. It would be iniquitous if we were unable to repay that tremendous debt to the ones that fought for us ... Wouldn't you agree?"

"... Lady Tiki..." Lucina whispered out back in horror, but by the time she finished the Voice was already out of sight. She was gone, and for time being the only thing the two could do was look back to each other in disarray.

...

"Fifteen years." Robin muttered under his breath as he spent his time in the library with his wife. She insisted that they look for an alternative method to protect him and Robin agreed with her, but deep down he knew it was unlikely that they would find something that the Divine Dragon did not already know.

"That gives us a lot of time to find a cure." Lucina said determined and carefully looked at the pages in a random magic book. "Look here, it says that you can use Repel to cast away magic spells or hexes."

Robin carefully studied the spell and shrugged as he saw the side effects it caused. Can result in a loss of energy, poor eyesight, temporary or permanent loss of hearing, poor coordination, depression, and fatality in inexperienced or novice mages. Repel can only be cast on the user and not from a substitute. Results may vary.

"I don't think it would be powerful enough to break something like this. Besides, I can barely summon a small flame, let alone a spell like this one."

"I see, but there has got to be something else we can find." She went back to studying the book and scrolled with her finger pointed on anything that looked interesting.

Robin hesitated as he saw her intently gaze into the book looking for a secret to unravel. "... Lucina."

Hearing Robin's voice, she immediately looked up to the tactician and asked, "Did you find something?"

"No... its not that." He sighed and shook his head. "But neither of us are familiar with this sort of stuff. Perhaps this job would be better suited for someone else."

"Right!" Lucina agreed as a massive revelation came across her mind, "We can have the mages help us. Surely they might be able to assist us in studying the ancient text."

"I imagine Chrom will ask the best magicians and enchanters in the world to aid in the research … But maybe it is best if we do not involve ourselves in this matter."

"Huh?" Lucina cried in a panic. "Robin, I'm sure we could aid in their task. However small our help might be, it will at least be beneficial to finding a cure quicker!"

"I have no doubt that we could find ways to help them, but at what cost? Five, or even ten years learning how to read and use magic. Whatever time I have left would be spent desperately searching for something that may not exist. We would be using nearly all of our time together looking for a way to prolong my life instead of enhancing it." Robin felt a pain stirring in his chest and looked away from the book in disgust.

"So you suggest we do nothing?" She called back in fear.

He sighed and clutched his hands trying to find the strength to speak. "Yes, it would bring me great pain knowing that you devoted all of your time on something like this. I couldn't live with myself if I wasted so much of your life."

"It's not a waste if it is for you!" She fiercely cried back. "What kind of wife would I be if I didn't try to help you?!"

"Lucina." He whispered softly. "Remember what Tiki said? If I am with those that I care about than I am at my strongest. No amount of research or magic can change that."

"I know that ... but-"

"I'm not giving up." Robin said firmly and reached to grab her hand. "If I died, I would leave you at 35 with such a long life ahead of you." He shook his head and looked her in the eyes. "But I am a very selfish man. Regardless of how noble it is, I don't want anyone to ever take my place after I die."

"Robin, I would never-"

He smiled warmly and said, "Which is why I intend to keep living as long as possible. For you, and for Morgan. But I want to enjoy my life with you too, and I can't do that if I dedicate my life to studying magic."

Lucina nodded slowly in despair and gripped his hand tighter, "... I understand."

Robin gently took the magic book out of Lucina's other hand and moved it out of sight. "You trust in me right?"

"Of course I trust you" She replied back with a genuine amount of love. "I always have."

"Then let's get away from this dusty old library and leave the research to our friends. I'll inform Chrom about the circumstances later tonight, but first I want to spend some time with you." He said trying to take her mind off her dreadful thoughts as well as repel his own worries lingering in his mind.

She looked back one last time at the book shelf with its vast texts of ancient magic before looking back and asking. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, we could spend some time strolling through the city and try that new steak restaurant. I hear they have excellent service and it will provide us a chance to talk about more cheerful things."

"I would like that" She gave a weak smile. " And maybe we could stop by the arena tomorrow morning. I hear they are having a jousting tournament."

"Oh really? That sounds interesting." Robin said intrigued. "It's been a while since I last saw one."

"Mhm, I hear there is a lot of new-comers this year so it should be very evenly matched."

"Heh, one of these days I'd like to enter one of those competitions too." Robin said whimsically. "Being covered in full metal armor and riding at full speed with a giant lance in my hand while trying to crush my opponent sounds like a great way to relieve stress."

"... I would like to participate in the sword fighting events." She said hesitantly. "It would be a great test to see how I compare to the skilled warriors across the land."

"It wouldn't be long before they begged for mercy." Robin laughed. "No one is skilled in the sword as much as my lovely wife."

The princess blushed a little and said, "I fear you over estimate my skills dear. I haven't trained my techniques very much since our fighting ended."

"Hmm, then I guess we will have to help each other get in shape for the next tournament. When are the championships going to be held?"

Lucina carefully thought it over and searched for her memories about an old poster she saw, "I believe they will be hosted at Plegia in a month and a half."

"I see, that doesn't give us a lot of time to hone our skills." Robin placed his hand on his chin and thought it over. "So we will have to carefully study the tournament tomorrow and start our practices after that. I can help you spar, and you can help me learn to ride a horse while holding an eighty pound stick. It will be just the two of us training for hours on end with only each other to keep company."

"I'd like that." Lucina smiled warmly. "I'd like that very much."

"Me too." Robin grinned. "Though I fear I might get a bit distracted during our sparring matches if our faces are inches away from each other as we lock or swords in a stalemate.

"Mhm, that would be very distracting indeed." She laughed and smiled even wider. "It sounds like a very tempting opportunity to kiss my opponent and catch them off guard."

"Hey, that's a very ruthless and unfair tactic" He protested while laughing.

"I learned from the best." She said with a mischievous grin. "And besides, it's not like you are the only one that gets a bit distracted during those moments."

"I see." Robin smirked and felt his blood pump a little faster through his body. "It sounds like we will be strengthening our endurance from our matches, among other things."

"Yes it does, but what about your training for jousting? To be honest, I am not sure how we would even begin with that since neither of us have much experience on war horses."

"Hmm, I am sure we could find some way to kiss each other on horses as well. In fact, I'll make that a priority target to aim for during my practices" He laughed.

She shook her head and closed her eyes with a large smile still on her face, "It doesn't sound like we will be getting very much serious training done if we do it together."

"No, but it does sound like a lot of fun."

"I can't argue with that, but what about Morgan?"

"What about her?" Robin asked puzzled.

"Don't you think she will get mad if we spend so much time together without her?"

"Heh, yeah you are right. She would be furious." Robin laughed just thinking about hearing her whine and throw a tantrum about being 'deprived.' "But I am sure she will calm down if we promise to tell our story in longer increments.

"Yeah, that probably will work." She nodded to herself and said. "Alright, let's do it. Let's spend time training for the tournament. I think it will be very enjoyable for both of us."

"Great." He said energetically with a gigantic grin on his face. "We have a battle plan for the weeks ahead of us." He jested and raised an invisible lance in his hands. "But for today let's try that new steak place. It's past two o'clock and I am rather famished."

"Okay, and while we eat we can discuss our plans for our training."

"Right." Robin reached for the door to open it for her and regally bowed as he said, "After you Milady."

She leaned over to kiss him on the cheek for his kindness. Not for opening the door, but for easing her worries like he had always done. "Thank you Sir Robin. You make a very fine knight."

"You grace me with your words princess." Robin smiled proudly and closed the library door behind him. While he walked hand in hand with her, he visibly looked refreshed and full of energy compared to his state over the last two weeks. He had cheated death three times now, and he knew that he could do it again if it meant spending time with those that he cared about.