Chapter 24: Serenity

The Fields of Southtown, The Halidom of Ylisse, Archanea

Arch. Year 2612

Getting off the ground was a slow and somewhat painful process, but with the girl's help—and a little bit of patience—Kris managed to find his feet again. A dull ache pulsed across his body, more aggravated now that he was standing, but he found himself thankful for the pain. It was the spark he needed to trigger his scrambled memories.

Hardin's defeat. Prince Marth's death. The downfall of Altea. His journey with the king and queen of Valentia and the heroes from another world. The Bottomless Canyon, the ambush in Valla that nearly killed them all, his short battle against Marth's twisted apparition and the wind roaring in his ears as he plummeted into an endless abyss…

It was all coming back to him. Everything, except for the most important thing in that moment.

Where, in the Divine Dragon's name and under her light, was he?

"Easy there…" the girl said, leaning him on her shoulder as he worked on regaining his balance. "Take all the time you need. Once you feel ready to walk, we'll get you to town and find you a healer."

"Thank you, er…"

"Lucina. My name is Lucina." The girl smiled and nodded to the boy in the large coat. "And this is my brother, Morgan. You have him to thank—he's the one who first spotted you out here."

Morgan grinned, raising his chin high and puffing out his chest. "I told you it'd be worth checking out the fields again. The master tactician's intuition strikes again!"

"Yes, yes," Lucina sighed. "Your ability to find people passed out in empty fields is surpassed only by Father."

"That's why I'm the favorite!"

"Is that so? I'll have to remember that the next time a roach flies into your room. The favorite child and Ylisse's master tactician should have no problem handling it by himself, right?"

Morgan instantly paled. "H-hey, let's not get too ahead of ourselves…"

As the pair went back and forth with each other, Kris straightened to his full height, his legs no longer straining to hold him up, and rubbed the cricks out of his neck. He took survey of the area to try to get a better sense of his surroundings. Wild patches of long, thin grass and flowers of every color traveled in every direction as far as he could see, parting around the occasional tree and stretching all the way to a far-off village sitting against the horizon. A mountain range split the earth from the sky and cast the village in soft shadows.

Kris squinted, tracing the dips and curves of the mountains with his eyes. They seemed…familiar somehow…

"Where are we?" he asked aloud. His new companions jumped a little at his voice, their bantering coming to a quick halt.

"The fields of Southtown," Lucina was the first to answer, "in the southern portion of Ylisse. We're about a mile shy of the village."

"Ylisse?"

"…The Halidom of Ylisse," Lucina tried again, her eyebrows knitting together in what seemed to be concern. "That's the country we're in right now. Are you not from Ylisse, sir?"

Kris shook his head, still staring at the mountain range.

"Plegia, maybe?" Morgan suggested. "Though your clothes don't really look fit for the desert…hm…" The boy tapped his chin and hummed. A curved pattern slightly darker than his skin rested on the back of his hand, too intricate and symmetrical to be a normal birth mark. "Regna Ferox, then? That's kind of the only country left. Well, in Archanea, at least—"

"Archanea?!" The name jumped from Kris's mouth in a shout much louder than he had intended. He cleared his throat and brought his voice down a few levels. "We're in Archanea?"

"Um…yes?"

That explained why the landscape looked so familiar, then. Instead of sending him back to Nohr, the canyon had brought him back to his own world. But why? And why hadn't the others followed him?

"What part of Archanea?" he continued to press. Although he recognized the mountain range, he couldn't place where it, or some territory called "Ylisse," would be on a map. Navigation and geography were not his strong suits, as Katarina had always liked to tease him before…everything went wrong. "Is Ylisse a region in Macedon? Grust? Aurelis, maybe—"

"His injuries might be worse than we thought," Morgan said in a not-so-hushed whisper to his sister. "Maybe he bonked his head on a tree, and that's what knocked him out."

"He can still hear you," Kris sighed, "and I didn't knock myself out with a tree. I fell through…uh…"

He scratched the back of his head, Azura's warning weighing heavy on his mind. One wrong word, one revelation too many about Valla and the identity of the Silent Dragon, and he was as good as dead. He needed to be very, very careful in his choice of words…but how was he supposed to explain the situation without the necessary details? Without sounding crazy?

Though it seemed he was already failing at that, given the bewildered expressions plastered across his new companions' faces.

"It looks like we've got another amnesiac on our hands," Morgan said, filling in for Kris's pensive silence with an awkward laugh. "Welcome to the club, I guess. Amnesia is a lot more common around here than you'd think."

"It's not amnesia." Kris stood at attention and tapped a fist to his chest. "I am Kris of the village Sera, captain of the 7th Platoon and knight in service to the great Kingdom of Altea. I have important information regarding the attacks ravaging our country that must reach Princess Elice before the next wave hits, so if you, good citizens, could kindly direct me to—"

"Kris, was it?" Lucina interrupted. She positioned herself between Kris and her brother, her hand hovering over the pommel of a sheathed sword. "I think you might be a bit confused. Those countries you've named—Macedon, Grust, Aurelis, Altea—they're all from stories. Ancient legends passed down from the time of the Hero-King."

"Ancient…legends?" Kris repeated slowly. Lucina nodded and inched closer to his side, though her hand did not move away from the sword.

"Epic tales of bravery and heroism, to be sure. Tales that have survived more than two millennia…but still tales, nonetheless. Perhaps you were reading about them before you lost—"

"Two millennia?"

Kris took a step back from her, the soldier's salute quickly wilting. "No, that can't be right. We weren't even in that other world for a full day, how could two thousand years have already passed here?" Another step back, this one with much more uncertainty. His heel caught the edge of a rock which nearly sent him tumbling to the ground again, but he somehow managed to keep himself upright.

"Thank you for your help, but I need to return to Altea immediately to warn the princess of what's coming. You both are welcome to follow and take refuge at the castle. The princess of House Lowell will welcome you with open arms."

"The princess of House Lowell, huh?" A hint of amusement tugged at the concerned frown on Lucina's lips. "If it's that important, you can just tell her now. Or preferably on the way to Southtown—the sooner your wounds and your mind are healed by a cleric, the better."

Kris blinked at her. "What?"

"You're looking at the princess of House Lowell." Morgan stifled another laugh behind his marked hand. "Well, one of them, at least. The daughter of the Exalt, heir to the throne and all that." His voice took on an exaggerated musical cadence. "She who is blessed by Naga's divine flame, she whose blood sings of the great heroes of legend—"

"You've spent too much time around Owain," Lucina sighed.

"But…that's not possible…" Kris muttered. "There is only one surviving member of House Lowell, and you are not her…unless…"

Unless this really is two thousand years in the future, he finished silently. Elice's descendants, then? They do have the Lowell look about them, and the hair to match.

"I don't know where you got that idea from," Morgan said, lifting his hand with a slight waggle to his fingers, "but there's plenty of us to go around. See? Brand of the Exalt's right here! Lucina's got it, too." He gestured to her face—Kris didn't see what he was talking about, but this "Brand" didn't mean much to him anyway—then to the sword on her hip. "And good ol' trusty Falchion at her side to boot."

"…What?"

The name ripped the breath right out of Kris's lungs. Falchion, had he heard that right? She was in possession of Falchion? Now that definitely wasn't possible, because the Archanean Falchion was…

Gone. Wielded by Marth's Vallite spirit. Kris had just barely survived a sword duel with the thing!

"Come on, Lucina, show him!" Morgan nudged his sister's side with his elbow, then grabbed the sword to slide it half-way out of its sheath. A golden sheen bathed the blade in soft light, one that Kris knew all too well.

The sword's handle was different from the one he remembered fighting alongside, but the blade itself was unmistakable. Falchion, the Kingsfang, Naga's blessed sword, whatever title you wanted to give it, was right here, instead of in the hands of a dead man.

If this truly was the future, it should have been impossible. And yet…

"Falchion isn't some toy for you to show off to random strangers," Lucina said, batting Morgan's arm away and shoving the sword back into the sheathe with a loud chink. Her voice grew softer before adding, "Besides, now is not the time. This man clearly needs—"

"Gods, how long are you guys going to keep talking back and forth like this?"

A woman holding her side limped toward them through the long grass. The brown fabric of her gambeson was stained red beneath her fingers, but instead of pain her face bore an agitated glare that was sharp enough to cut glass.

"Severa!"

Lucina and Morgan were at her side in an instant. Morgan shrugged off his coat, stretching it out to tie it around the woman's midsection, but she shook her head. The movement made her long, brown pigtails fall partially into her face.

"It's fine, the cut isn't that deep. It just needs a vulnerary or some light healing magic." Her eyes looked Kris over, seemingly checking for any injuries, then met his gaze head-on. "You okay? I know that fall wasn't a pleasant one."

"Wait, you know this guy?" Morgan asked, glancing between the two with the coat still hanging from his hands. Kris opened his mouth to deny it, but the more he looked at her…the face, the pigtails, the uniform…

"…Selena?" he guessed. "Is that you? What happened to your hair?"

"What do you mean what happened to my—oh."

She grabbed a chunk of hair and brought it in front of her widening eyes. Gone were her crimson locks, replaced by long strands of light brown that were tinted green depending on how the sun hit them.

"Guess that appearance spell has finally worn off," she muttered under her breath. "I'll never forgive him for picking red and making me look more like Mom. Like I don't get compared to her enough as it is…"

"Okay, what the heck is going on?" Morgan quickly tugged the coat back over his shoulders and jabbed a finger at Selena. "First, you and Owain and Inigo just up and leave without telling anybody why, then you show up a few days later all injured with"—he threw his hands over to Kris— "some random guy claiming to be a knight of a country that hasn't existed since the Schism, and now you're going by the name Selena? What gives?"

"I'll explain it all later," she started, striding toward the distant town despite the limp in her step and motioning for all three of them to follow, "but basically, me, Owain, and Inigo were asked by…a person…to help him stop a mad dragon from destroying his home world."

"Sounds familiar," Lucina said, jogging to catch up to her.

"But now that dragon is not just trying to destroy that world, but multiple. He can manipulate the dead like Grima did with the Risen, except they can turn semi-invisible and they're controlled through water. He's been sending them to invade several different realms at various points in history."

She nodded to Kris over her shoulder. "When we met him, he was traveling from one of those worlds with Merric, the Great Sage of Wind, and—get this—Almand Celica. Like, the Alm and Celica, from when Valm was still Valentia. They had their own version of Falchion and everything, just like the legends say."

"Wait, really?" Morgan's eyes looked like they might pop out of their sockets. "You met…you met…"

Selena was doing her best to keep a leveled, serious expression, but she couldn't seem to help but crack a small grin. "You should have seen Owain when he figured it out. I was seriously worried he was going to explode from excitement."

"Then that means…" Morgan whipped his wide-eyed gaze around to Kris. "Y-you were telling the truth about being from Altea? You know Merric and Alm and Celica?!"

"…Yes…I've worked with Merric for quite some time now as part of the Altean army," Kris said. "As for Alm and Celica…I only met them a few days ago. But I assume these stories you've mentioned reference them quite a bit, too?"

"Um, yeah! A little more than a bit!" Morgan was practically bouncing along the path to the village now, and although Lucina was much more reserved in her gait, the bright gleam in her eyes betrayed the excitement she shared with him. "Alm was the legendary conqueror of Valentia who brought an entire continent and two dragons to heel, whose ruthless impulses were only tempered by the presence of the kindhearted queen sitting at his side."

Kris scratched his cheek and frowned. That…didn't sound like Alm at all. At least, not the one he had come to know so far.

"He was the inspiration for Emperor Walhart's conquest of the known world," Morgan continued, mouth curling into a smug, triumphant smile. "The emperor we beat, by the way. I guess the Hero-King's bloodline turned out to be superior to the Saint-King's in the end, huh?"

"All right, Morgan, I think that's enough," Lucina chuckled.

"You just want him to talk about Marth," Morgan shot back. Lucina coughed and dipped her head away, which Morgan seemed to take as a win. "Marth, Marth, Marth. Everyone always wants to talk about Marth, but what about all the other great heroes who fought at his side? The tacticians who paved his way to victory, like Katarina, the Wayward Strategist?"

Kris choked and came to a sudden, lurching stop, like a chill had blown over and frozen his feet to the ground. His chest tightened at the sound of Marth's name; his lungs stuttered at the sound of hers. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to shove down the awful memories before they could resurface.

"Kris?" Selena's voice. He tried to focus on it as he breathed in, then out, forcing himself to take in air again. "Are you—"

"They're dead," Kris said. It came out flat, monotone, emotionless, despite the bile building in his gut.

"W-well…yeah…" Morgan stammered, his enthusiasm deflating in a matter of seconds. "It's been two thousand years, so—"

"They're dead in my time," Kris repeated. "Almost everyone—even the Hero-King. All the great heroes and legends you speak of, killed by the invisible soldiers."

"…Oh…"

"You claim to be Marth's descendants?" The others stared at him with a tight lip, standing as still as statues as Kris spoke. "You may have his surname, you may have his sword, but it's impossible for you to have his blood. He died before he could have any children—before he could even get married—so I'm not sure how he could have any descendants."

"But…" Morgan started, "what about all the books that talk about his great deeds and chronicle his reign as the leader of Archanea? What about all the stories about the Archanean League?"

"Wrong," Kris said, glaring at the ground, "or greatly exaggerated. You spoke of Katarina? She died in my arms before she had the chance to win even just a few battles as a tactician in Marth's army. She aspired to be a great strategist someday, but she never—"

"But she was," Morgan insisted. "She was one of the best tacticians in Archanean history! I study her book on strategy and battle tactics so much that I keep two copies on me at all times. See, look…"

He rummaged around a leather satchel and pulled out two books, opening up one of them to the first page for Kris to read. The penmanship was familiar, but the words themselves…

"This compendium details all my knowledge, all my learnings on the art of strategy gained from decades' worth of experience both on and off the battlefield, all in service to His Majesty Marth of the House Lowell, the Hero-King of Altea. The man who gave a wayward soul a second chance when she deserved none.

I dedicate this book to him; to my sister Clarisse, who stayed by my side even in the darkest of days and most dangerous of nights; and to my beloved husband, who has never once lost faith in me, who brings me more happiness each and every day than I ever dreamed I would feel in a lifetime.

I would not be here without you."

Kris traced the last sentence with his thumb. A silent tear dropped onto the page, and Kris had to shove the book back into Morgan's hands before any more could escape.

"It…it does seem like she wrote that…" Kris admitted in a tight whisper. Hardly anyone but him had known about Katarina's relationship with the assassin Clarisse, so for that specific detail to be included in this book…

Unless someone had spent a great deal of time digging through her history and learning how to imitate her penmanship, it could only have been written by her hand.

But how?

"We can work all this out later," Selena huffed, moving again toward the town in the distance. They still had quite the ways to go. "Right now, we need to focus on getting to Ylisstol and preparing for the invisible soldiers' next move. I think the Voice may be in danger, and Robin…well…I know where she is now."

Morgan gasped. "You found her? That's why we were out here in the first place, we've been looking all over for her! Is she close by? Is she…"

His voice trailed off as he and Selena traveled farther and farther across the field. Kris, however, stood rooted in place, staring at his hand. Marth's descendants…Falchion…Katarina's books…it shouldn't have been possible.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump.

"Apologies," Lucina said, raising her hands in mock surrender, "I didn't mean to frighten you out of your thoughts like that."

"No apologies necessary, Your Highness. I just…" Kris lowered his gaze again to the ground. "I have a lot on my mind."

"I'm sure, but if you would allow me to share a few thoughts of my own before we depart?"

After Kris gave her a short nod, Lucina said, "We are no strangers to being displaced in time ourselves. Me, Morgan, Severa—or Selena, as you know her—and the rest of our friends, we come from a dark future steeped in malice and despair. A future where the Fell Dragon Grima destroyed everyone and everything we held dear…a future without hope."

"I'm sorry," Kris said softly. "That sounds terrible."

"It was." Lucina curled her hand around Falchion's handle, letting out a shuddering breath. "But then, the impossible happened: the Divine Dragon, Naga, gave us a chance to make things right. She used the last of her power to send us survivors back to a time before Grima's resurrection—the time we're in now—to save our parents and our future from the Fell Dragon's madness. To challenge our fate."

A ghost of a smile spread over her face, and in that moment, she was the spitting image of the Hero-King himself.

"And together, with my mother's sacrifice, we won." She turned to face him one last time, smile and all. "Forgive me if this sounds overly optimistic, but…if Naga was able to send us to the past to save the future…then wouldn't it stand to reason that she could also send someone to the future to somehow, in some way, save the past?"

"…I'm not sure I see how changing something in the future could have any effect on things that have already happened," Kris said. Logically speaking, it didn't make much sense to him.

But then again, there was a lot that didn't make sense about this entire situation, yet here they were.

"Thank you for your insight regardless, Your Highness." Kris removed the broadsword from his back and lowered himself to one knee, sticking the sword into the ground and resting his forehead against the crossguard. "If you truly are a princess of House Lowell, then I am bound to your service. Not even the passage of two thousand years can break a knight's oath."

Lucina laughed softly and shook her head. "There's no need for that, sir. You are a friend of Severa's, which makes you a friend of mine. And friends don't kneel to each other." She turned on her heel, her cape sweeping behind her. "Now let's hurry, before Morgan and Severa get too far ahead of us."

Nodding, Kris rose to his feet. The pain in his legs were gone, and although his heart weighed heavy in his chest with the memories of his lost friends, there was a seed of hope budding there, too.

Figures one of Marth's descendants would be the person to plant it.

Character Bios:

Katarina: Sage

—An assassin-turned-tactician during the War of Heroes. She once infiltrated Altea's ranks by posing as a new recruit alongside Kris and the 7th Platoon on a mission to kill the Hero-King, but eventually turned her back on the assassin who raised her to join Marth's army. Though she died young during Kris's time, her name somehow still lives on in history as one of the greatest tacticians Archanea has ever known.

—Relations: Sister of Clarisse (adoptive; deceased). Former underling of Eremiya (deceased).

Lucina: Great Lord

—Princess of Ylisse and descendant of the Hero-King. A woman of strong conviction who traversed the barriers of time to save her family and her country, who once took on the identity of "Marth" to give hope to a grim world…and to herself.

—Wielder of the Parallel Falchion and bearer of Naga's Brand in her left eye

—Relations: Daughter of Chrom and Robin. Sister of Morgan. Cousin of Owain/Odin. Niece of Lissa and Emmeryn (deceased).

Morgan: Grandmaster

—Prince of Ylisse and descendant of the Hero-King. An aspiring tactician who, despite coming from the same future as Lucina and their peers, doesn't remember much about his original timeline save for the warm memories of his mother. He's doing all he can to remember, though, from reading to banging his head on wooden posts— much to his family's chagrin.

—Bearer of Naga's Brand on his left hand (his right holds a different pattern that, though almost completely faded, seems to resemble something far more sinister…)

—Relations: Son of Chrom and Robin. Brother of Lucina. Cousin of Owain/Odin. Nephew of Lissa and Emmeryn (deceased).

Severa: Hero (Update)

—One of 13 children who traveled from the future to save the world from Grima's destruction. A snarky swordswoman who, despite her tendency to make rude and off-putting comments, wants to make the world a better place for everyone. She is often compared to her perfectionist of a mother, which has sparked a bit of an inferiority complex in her.

—Also known as Selena in the realm of Nohr and Hoshido, the retainer of Princess Camilla

—Relations: Daughter of Cordelia and Stahl.

And we're back! Thanks to everyone that participated in that little vote from last chapter, it helped me finalize my outline and figure out the best ordering of events. We'll see the next new world fairly soon, and with it the winner of the poll. I should be able to get back on my ~ every two weeks upload schedule now that the semester has wrapped.

I hope everyone enjoys the end of the year and whatever holiday you might celebrate. Until next time!

(Also, what was up with Alm's Einherjar in Awakening being so damn aggressive? It's interesting to see how the FE developers changed their interpretation of his character between then and the release of Echoes.)

Next chapter: A familiar face, and a meeting with the Exalt.