A Divided Dream

Although the magic thunderstorm around Validar's tower had fled, the sky a wyvern mile east dressed itself in dark clouds. Maybe they would bring the first snow. It was cold again in Lucina's skin.

An hour of ride and rest had passed, and Sothis had yet to wake up.

Ares had run out of patience and was practicing his swordsmanship a handful of yards away from the pond overgrown with arrowheads where Lucina had set up camp. The lightning-struck pine stretched its empty branches above them. She tried to listen with only half an ear and to convince herself it was Ike who hacked at the air with Ragnell. But the illusion couldn't quite manifest. Ike's steps were heavier, his swings broader, and training sessions were the only times where he rolled the doggedness from his shoulders and his breath relaxed into a dance-like pattern.

Lucina shook her head and dipped the cloth she was holding back into the pond. Here she was, thinking about him again when Naga's Voice needed her full attention. With slow, gentle movements, she ran the wet cloth over Sothis' bare arms. Her head rested in Lucina's lap, and Lucina had done her best to wash away the dirt of imprisonment and torture. She had even attempted to untangle the knots in the once lustrous emerald hair, but many parts could only be salvaged by a pair of scissors.

Lucina brushed a matted strand out of Sothis' face. Tiki had often asked Lucina to comb her hair. The memory tightened her throat, and Lucina resumed cleaning Sothis' arms. They showed next to no scars; even Validar's magic had struggled to pierce the Manakete's skin to leave lasting damage. But as to what had broken on the inside over the past two decades, Lucina could only guess.

She paused and rubbed her own arms.

"We are wasting time." Ares had interrupted his exercise and strode towards Lucina. "We should be using the remaining hours of daylight to cover some ground."

Lucina dabbed Sothis' forehead with the cloth, the face so like Tiki's and just as still as hers in death. "Maybe you're right. Maybe physical distance from Validar's tower will break whatever spell he put on her."

She placed the cloth down and was about to climb to her feet when a sleepy voice startled her.

"Hey, don't stop. That was so nice. I was almost thinking Naga had come for me."

Lucina jumped; her mind surely was playing tricks on her again. She had heard too many voices from the dead in the past hours. But the small hand plucked her sleeve with an all too real annoyance.

"Hey, I said don't stop."

Lucina bowed over Sothis, still grappling with her bewilderment. "Are you awake?"

Sothis stretched, gave an exaggerated yawn, and almost bumped heads with Lucina when she sat up. "Well, I am now. But I liked it better when you were just stroking my arms instead of all this talking." She noticed Ares and waved at him. "Hello there, handsome. Then you must be the chivalrous knight who saved the poor maiden from the tower. Heh, I really lucked out."

Lucina tried to match Sothis' words with what she knew from Tiki and utterly failed. She blinked several times, but the pieces still refused to align to a coherent picture.

"Are you alright?" she managed after a moment. "Validar held you in his tower for over two decades, and—"

"Bah, you think that magic bungler could get me down? Two decades are just the blink of an eye in my life. I was around when the first member of your bloodline hadn't even been conceived. He was a very boring man by the way, plain like a wet sheet when you removed the sword from him."

"So you know who I am?"

"With that hair-color and that face? I don't need to do much guessing there. You're obviously from the Altean royal house."

Lucina raised a hand to her face. People had compared her looks to Marth before. The supposed likeness had inspired her first contact with Altean rebels. The fact that Sothis noticed the same resemblance should not surprise her to such a degree, but the rest of Sothis' behavior continued to upset her balance.

"Well, Altean or not, I can't really say no to the people who got me out of that stinking tower. You can call me Sothis. If you would have the decency to give me your names too – or did mannered introductions become outdated while I was gone from the world?"

"I thought Naga might have told you already. My name is Lucina. I'm her current champion."

Sothis' face fell a little, and she twirled a lock of hair around her finger. "Oh. I guess that makes sense. The champion I picked last time didn't do such a great job."

"An understatement," Ares said.

"And that champion, you gave him both a sword and the Starsphere, didn't you?" Lucina asked. "Naga tasked me to unite her five spheres."

"Of all the times…" Sothis muttered. "I thought she had given up on the Fire Emblem. She must be getting impatient."

"We thought maybe Validar took the sphere," Lucina tried again, "but it wasn't at his tower."

"I wanna see that bungler try and get his hands on the Starsphere. He'll sooner bite his crooked teeth out."

"I… don't think I understand. Would Validar not want the sphere's power for himself?"

"Sure he would. But killing the owner of the Starsphere is about as easy as killing one of the stars it's named after."

Lucina leaned back. The solution prickled on her fingertips, but she struggled to grasp it. Eternal stars – what was it that Ares had said? He has what all men aspire to already. Immortality. A wound paid for with an arm, and it healed in an instance. The puzzle pieces clicked together.

"The Black Knight still carries the last sphere," Lucina said.

Ares face darkened. "Then he is the one we should have focused on. The tower was nothing but a waste of time. The mythic weapon is still hidden, and I gained nothing!"

Sothis huffed. "Well, you gained me."

"And you have yet to prove to me how that is more than nothing. You gave the sphere to the Black Knight. Do you or don't you know a way to kill him?"

Lucina aimed for a softer tone, but her request was no less urgent. "Could you maybe ask Naga? I hope to speak with her again. I saw and heard things at the tower I can't make sense of, things I need clarity about."

Sothis was still twirling her hair. "Why would you want to speak with her about anything? Isn't my own voice pretty enough for you?"

"I understand you will need more time to recover from your imprisonment. And maybe Naga won't answer you right away. Tiki said it happened to her sometimes. But please, if you could—"

"Who's Tiki?"

Lucina blinked. "Naga's Voice. Your successor. I thought you knew."

Sothis' shoulders sank. She looked even smaller now amidst her mass of knotted, matte hair. "Oh yeah, that makes total sense. I just forgot. Standard procedure, really. When you lose one voice, you get yourself a new one. With the power of creation, that's easily done, you just snap your fingers and bam! a new Manakete jumps into existence. Really though, why are you bothering me with this when you could just ask this Tiki?"

"She died over a year ago." Lucina struggled to keep her voice even. "That's why I need your help all the more, Sothis. Only through you will we be able to defeat the Black Knight and win the last sphere, I'm sure."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Sothis lunged for the open bag next to Lucina and helped herself with a sizable slice of smoked bacon. "Naga ditched me when Validar first closed the door to my cell. I haven't heard from her since. And before you ask, I can't transform into a dragon and blast Zelgius into the five hells either. Not anymore. But, eh, who cares?" She stuffed another piece of meat into her mouth. "Feet are nice too. I can use them, no wings required. And I don't even have to listen to Naga's pestering monologues anymore. This is—" She ripped through a mouthful of bacon. "—the best life."

Before she swallowed that bite too, Sothis went pale. She twitched. Then she folded forward and vomited out the half-chewed chunks of meat.

Helpless and a little dizzy herself from the sickly-sweet smell of bile, Lucina patted Sothis' back until the tremors subsided and Sothis returned to her senses enough to take the bowl with water from Lucina to wash out her mouth.

"Forget you saw that, okay?" Sothis managed after a few moments. "I, uhm, haven't had something to eat in a while."

"That's alright," Lucina said. "Take your time."

She studied Sothis' pale and sunken profile, and couldn't hide her disappointment. She had thought Naga's Voice could guide her back to the right path, that she might even assist them in the fight against the Black Knight as Tiki had done in the battle of Lycia. But Sothis could barely stand, let alone transform. Without her connection to Naga, she couldn't even provide the words Lucina so desperately needed.

The taste of smoke from her encounter in Validar's tower still plastered her mouth. The skull-faced creature still stretched a thin, gray hand towards her when she closed her eyes. Whether the words spoken had been Validar's, Grima's, or a reflection of her own thoughts, she couldn't tell. All the more did she need to speak with Naga. Sothis in her state, however, would help her little to reach the glass palace of Naga's realm.

Perhaps that too was part of the puzzle. After the years in imprisonment, Sothis barely warranted the term alive. Without a caring hand to treat her wounded core, she would likely wither amidst Tellius' forests for centuries until Naga showed her mercy and called her home. This should make it easier to give the second key willingly, right?

Sothis waved a hand in front of Lucina's face. "Hey, I know I'm not the shiniest sight at the moment, but you can stop staring at me with that dopey face. You can bet I imagined someone other than some thin Altean princess to rescue me too."

"I'm sorry, I was just thinking about how to continue from here."

"Well, there can't be two living champions of Naga. So the choice is obvious. But frankly I would bet my hair on Zelgius. With those thin arms, you won't last long against him."

"And frankly, you have caused us more trouble than you're worth." Ares grabbed Sothis' shoulder and forced her to look at him. "You made the Black Knight who he is. How can I defeat him? Tell me!"

"Ares!"

"You can't," Sothis said and jutted her chin. "Obviously you aren't meant to defeat him when he's got the Starsphere and will just laugh off every sword blow you lead against him. But good luck trying."

Ares increased his grip on Sothis' shoulder. "What about the weapon? The weapon forged to destroy the Black Knight. You have to know where it is."

"Oh." Sothis tapped her chin, unimpressed by Ares. "Yeah, I guess that could work."

"Are you remembering something?" Lucina asked in what she hoped to be an encouraging tone. Her heart was racing.

Ares too submitted to his curiosity, and he let go of Sothis to give her the space she needed to elaborate. His single hand quivered with anticipation and also… desire?

"It's true, I did forge a weapon to destroy Zelgius, shortly before he captured me," Sothis said. "A sister-sword to his own weapon, Alondite. Where Alondite's blade shines with pure white, its twin shimmers all in gold. One of my better works, I will say. It's the only weapon that can hurt and even kill Zelgius."

"I know all that," Ares snapped. "Where is it?"

"I gave it to a knight from Tellius' high circle. Gawain. He didn't come with you to rescue me by any chance?"

Lucina swallowed. Could it be? "He died several years ago."

Sothis sighed. "You mortals just can't stop dying, can you? That's your loss then. Only someone with Gawain's blood can wield the sword and summon the light to counter the Star-sphere's powers. I didn't want to risk this one falling into Zelgius' hands too. Even if you were hiding Ragnell somewhere in your pockets, which I doubt, it wouldn't be of much use to you."

Lucina couldn't stay seated anymore and jumped to her feet. Ragnell. Then it was true. A smile, no, a laugh overpowered her, and she mocked herself for being so blind. Ares next to her had gone rigid. He too understood what this meant.

"Mind letting me in on the joke?" Sothis asked.

Lucina was hardly listening. "We have to get to Ike. As soon as possible."

"Hello? Did I black out, or what happened that you're all acting crazy?"

Lucina marched to her horse, drunk on golden scenarios. Ike, her Ike, who hated knight titles and invented curses against the gods whenever he thought she wasn't listening, was the answer. She slung the bag with the Binding Shield over the saddle, hoping, begging, praying that he had survived his confrontation with the Black Knight. Silly thought, of course he had survived like he always did, most likely he stood triumphantly over the remains of the Black Knight in this moment and would toss her the Starsphere with a rare smile when she would reach him. She not only believed in that possibility, she basked in it, refused to allow her doubts to catch up to her for at least this moment. With his help, she would complete the Binding Shield and then, and then…

She didn't finish the thought, but she was glad for it. The clatter of two horses' harnesses approached through the thicket. A moment later, Cordelia emerged out of the forest.

And behind her rode Ike.

Lucina dropped the reins and ran over to him. He jumped out of the saddle, and she stopped less than an armlength in front of him, panting, smiling, positively lost in the familiar contours of his face.

"I'm sorry," they both blurted out at once.

Ike had reached for her face, but now he stopped. "Wait, what?"

"I'm sorry," Lucina repeated between heavy breaths. "You were right."

"But it wasn't the Black Knight. I rode off without thinking like I always do for nothing. Not to mention what I said—"

"Not for nothing. You were trying to help people in need like a knight would have done. Like a queen should do."

"But I abandoned you even though I said I would stick this out with you. If something had happened, if someone like Ursula had shown up… Please tell me you didn't go into Validar's sick torture tower without me."

The euphoria would not wear off, it clung to Lucina with greater persistence than battle adrenalin while leaving her just as shaky, and it drowned the gray skull-face from the tower before it had a chance to manifest.

"It's okay. I'm okay." Although she struggled to send her muscles the commands to turn her eyes away from Ike's face, Lucina gestured back towards the small figure of emerald hair and raised eyebrows by the pond. "We found Sothis, Naga's former Voice. Sothis, this is Ike, son of Gawain."

Sothis climbed to her feet and tiptoed left and right in an effort to view Ike from all angles. "Heh, I get the fuzz now."

"Sorry," Ike said, "I'm not big on believing in Naga."

"Then we will be the best of friends." Sothis forgot her previous exhaustion and hopped over to poke Ike's arm. "I think this one will do fine. And he has Ragnell with him already, that should spare us a tedious search through Tellius' underbelly."

Ike turned a confused eyebrow towards Lucina. "I feel like I missed something."

Lucina couldn't keep from smiling. "Remember the weapon Ares mentioned, the only weapon that can destroy the Black Knight? It's Ragnell. It's always been Ragnell!"

"I don't know. It's just a sword with a golden coat."

"Hey!" Sothis nudged Ike's arm. "A bit more respect towards my masterpiece, if you please. I shed quite literal tears to make this sword."

"That's great, I suppose, but Ragnell didn't do so well when I was fighting Roy or anyone lately. I doubt this'll be enough to kill the Black Knight."

"You're underselling yourself," Cordelia said. "If anyone has the skills and brute strength to drive that sword through the Black Knight's armor, it's you."

"Really, you will have nothing to worry about," Sothis added. "As long as you fight for the people who matter to you and don't develop the same obsession with battle prowess as Zelgius, you will be fine. Because that's when Ragnell shows her true might and unleashes her blue fire against your opponents. That's my dragon fire, by the way. No need to thank me, I know it's way too awesome of a gift to comprehend."

Lucina placed a hand on Ike's arm. "Don't you see what that means? You will be the one to end the Black Knight and free Tellius. Your home."

Ike met her eyes. Slowly, as if he worried to break something delicate, he brushed the smoke of Validar's tower from her face. "If you say so, I guess I have no choice but to believe it."

Betrayal!

It had been a lie, always a lie Ares had been chasing. All the years he had stalked through Tellius' deepest forests and most wretched villages, a useless waste of time. Haunted by a black ghost and chasing a golden one, except he hadn't known the truth behind the dream, still carrying the lie at his side because oh, how tempting had been the taste of it.

Countless people had he asked about the mythic weapon, countless people had he killed for the tiniest kernel of a rumor that could lead him to the golden sword. To believe he, Ares, could wield it, could carry it against the Black Knight and avenge the arm and the father he had lost. A cripple still but unburdened, unbroken, finally triumphant. How often had Leif placed a hand on his shoulder, and how often had he assured that Ares was meant for the extraordinary? Under the sun-kissed plane trees of Leonster Castle, Ares had believed the lie. He had taken it with him in the folds of his tunic when he had dived back into the black mists of Tellius. And in the deepest night with no one but the spruce trees to watch, he had taken out the lie and had seen himself with the golden sword in hand.

Now it hung from the back of another man.

Ragnell had never been Ares' to find, it had not even dwelled in Tellius. No, the lost son, the weak whelp, had taken it with him when he had run away.

Why, why, why hadn't the Pheraen border guards shot him down, how could this whelp with the headband have survived when they had slaughtered so many others, how –

Of course. A tremor shook Ares, building and building, and he almost let the laughter break free, loud and desperate. Yes, a boy with a Tellius headband and a wrapped package had stood in the Black Wall's shadow fifteen years ago. And Ares had helped him cross. The boy who had fled with Titania had grown into Ike. Looking at his face now that he sat next to Lucina, Ares had no doubts. His suppressed laughter threatened to choke him. He had seen a glimpse of the sword that night. One stroke, and he could have held it in his hand. Instead, he had helped carry it above the wall and out of reach. Wasn't that the greatest betrayal of them all?

Villages had collapsed into moss-covered rubble for nothing.

Bandits and farmers, and women and children had died, ripped apart for nothing.

And out of nothing had Ares built his existence, nothing but lies. Ike sat there by the pond, entangled with Lucina in conversation, like songbird chatter in spring, and in his lap shone Ragnell in all its golden glory.

And Ares' father died a second time.

"Hey, Ares, snap out of it." Cordelia flicked a pebble at his chest. She had taken to Sothis immediately, and with a reverence he hadn't thought she possessed, she had picked up Lucina's cloth and dabbed Sothis' arms. What an idiotic ritual.

She should have stayed away. Run like he had expected her to, like the weak whelp had done. But here she sat with them at the pond. She had even exchanged a nod with Lucina as though her departure had belonged to a plan shared between them all along.

"Come on, Ares," Cordelia continued. "You can't blame it on Mystletainn this time."

The black sword lay next to Ares, untouched. "I was merely wondering how to approach the issue of the Black Knight going forward," he said. "A sword to kill him is well and good, but without the right hand to wield it, it will be rather useless."

"You haven't seen Ike fight."

"Actually, I have."

"And? Still doubtful about how he will win this?"

Ares spared himself the trouble of answering. Ike had performed well enough against Lucina in their training duel by the willow. By most standards, he possessed the ideal abilities for a knight. But this was Tellius, where abilities drowned in the mud and standards had long since rotted under moss and fallen leaves. To learn was to learn the hard way, and to fail learning was to die.

Ares' left arm throbbed.

"I will say, it's nice to stretch my legs a little." Sothis placed down the bowl with thin rabbit broth she had been spooning up for the last half an hour and yawned. "But for my rescue, you could have brought a carriage. I'm so sick of sleeping on the ground."

"Haven't you slept enough?"

"Do I look well-rested to you?" Sothis ripped a hand through her hair, and an entire tuft came loose. "Bah, I feel like a basilisk during shedding season."

"Do I even want to know what a basilisk is?" Ike asked.

"Sheesh, your era is so boring. Let me tell you, when basilisks lived in the holes in the ground and dragons boiled the clouds to make it rain fire and molten metal, those were interesting times. But all the great lizards died out to make more room for humans waging war against each other." Another tuft of emerald sailed to the ground. "Stupid hair, Validar should have burned you down years ago!"

"I will cut it for you, if you want," Cordelia said, almost timidly.

"Thanks, I will get back to that. But as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, when this is over, the first thing I will do is get myself a bed. The largest, fluffiest bed in all of Archanea, with fifty pillows for me alone, and then you won't see as little as a toe tip from me for the next year."

Cordelia chuckled, and the sound made Ares' jolt. Before Sothis, she had only looked cold, determined at best, and the Black Knight still cast his shadow over them all, but here she sat, laughing.

"Care to join?" Sothis asked. "You could feed me more soup."

Cordelia refilled the broth bowl and handed it back to Sothis. "Sounds like a good plan." She glanced at Ike. Something between them had changed during their shared ride here, and Ares had few reasons to like that change. "But I'll have a ship to catch when this is over. Breathe the ocean air a little. Just to see if it's changed."

That meant deserting Leif. And how carefree she was about it, how carefree they all were…

Lucina smiled. "That sounds wonderful."

"And what will the great hero be doing?" Sothis asked and nudged Ike's knee with her bare foot. "Something exciting I hope?"

Ike didn't take his eyes from Lucina. "I guess I will be going home."

"Boring!"

"What about you, Ares?" Cordelia asked. "What will you do afterwards?"

"Afterwards?" Ares's left arm throbbed. "I never thought there would be an afterwards."

Lucina's smile dipped a little. Although she sat right next to Ike, Ares felt a sort of kinship with her, as though she knew the fangs that sliced him up from the inside, future-less in the shadows. What a foolish thought.

"I'm sure you will find something," she said. "In time."

Find something – Ares glared at Ragnell in Ike's lap. That what he had wanted to find had escaped him, it had never been intended for him, bound to the blood of a traitor, a deserter, a man who had never known Tellius in its darkest hour and only stood against the Black Knight for the glory and the girl.

Ike would fail, that alone was inevitable, he would fail and die for that sword he had ripped out of a greater man's hand. Only when, that remained to be seen. Ares would be there to see it. When that headband slipped from Ike's forehead and his almost-smile slipped into Lucina's memory, maybe Ares would close his remaining fingers around Ragnell's hilt and raise the golden sword. Let the lie turn into truth.

Until then, Ares would bite his time. He knew how to wait. The stalker patiently follows in the prey's shadow. And when he strikes, it will be from behind.

Tomorrow they would reach the Black Knight's fortress, Ares had said. Lucina ran her hand across the Binding Shield. Without a great fanfare, Ike had slipped the Lifesphere back into its place, but Lucina was certain Cordelia had noticed the smile of gratitude she had sent her. Although Sothis occupied most of Cordelia's attention, she again talked with Ike, and even when they said nothing, their looks glowed with a rekindled understanding. They would be alright.

Lucina felt the four spheres more than she saw them when she stroked the Binding Shield. Clouds hid the stars, or maybe the growing shadows stemmed from the Black Knight's fortress. This was the last night.

She sat in the damp moss a short walk away from the campfire where the others slept. A miniature clearing, little more than a patch of dark sky between the spruce crowns left by a tree that had snapped in the last storm, allowed room for a few tufts of sun-loving grass. It had snowed this afternoon, but the flakes hadn't lasted on the ground, and after an hour, the clouds had given up, waiting for the next rush of an eastward breeze from the Caerninon mountains. Still the cold crept along Lucina's arms.

Ike would do his utmost against the Black Knight, and his determination would lead him to victory. Other possibilities found no roots to sprout their ugly fears in Lucina's mind. But afterwards… Her wandering fingers paused at the dragon head protruding from the Binding Shield's face.

"Naga, is this what you want?" she whispered. "Is this what is needed?"

Naga gave no answer, but Lucina's hand stroked across her arm as if by itself. The slight bumps and imperfections of dagger scars could still be felt. Flawed. Transient. But it was her skin nonetheless.

Lucina hugged her chest to protect herself against the cold from outside and within.

"Will this save Archanea?" The Binding' Shield's smooth metal surface pressed against her palm. "Will this be enough to ensure all of them a future, all those who still live? Soren, Cordelia, Ares, Ike… will this be enough? Please, Naga. I know I'm supposed to have faith, but give me just one more sign. One more word and I will abandon my hesitancy. Please…"

A twig snapped. But it wasn't Naga who stepped into the clearing.

"I wouldn't waste too much breath on trying to talk to her," Sothis said and plucked at the grass with her toes.

Lucina placed the Binding Shield aside. "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"Nope, I just figured since I can't have my bed with the fifty pillows yet, I might as well enjoy the sights. Not that there's a whole lot more to see than in my hole at the tower. Forests haven't changed over time, I got that much. I wonder if it's the same in the towns. You know, is white still the fashionable color in the avenues of Terra and what sort of spicy smells hang in the dyer alleyway in Ostia? And the archways on the hills above Aurelis, are they still there? That sort of thing. Pretty silly, huh?"

"Not at all." Lucina gestured at the patch of moss next to her. "If you want to talk about it…"

How disingenuous of her. She planned to offer up Sothis as the last figure to win the game and prided herself on kindness for taking Sothis' story with her as she had once done with her rebels. But the alternative weighed as a cold numbness in her chest.

"What's there to talk about?" Sothis dragged her feet across the grass. "I didn't get to see the sun for a bit and had to live with Validar's disgusting smell in my nose. No big deal. I'm not some delicate bud like you humans."

"I can see that." Lucina struggled to maintain the smile, and when she continued, it had faded. So disingenuous. "I have been surrounded by war and death for almost as long as I can remember. The man who raised me couldn't hide it from me for as long as he liked. It was always there, a reminder of the shortness of human life, whether I looked to the executions in the palace's yard or the soldiers returning wounded from skirmishes with rebels. But the only time I wanted to die was when I was held captive by Ursula. Maybe I was there in this cell for only a few hours but… I would have done anything for it to end. I cannot even imagine to bear that pain and that loneliness for years."

Sothis kicked the grass and shuffled. After a moment, she finally sat down next to Lucina. "Do you know about the capabilities of Manakete tears?"

During the height of Pherae's civil war, Tiki had combined one of her tears with a blessing from Naga to form a pendant that protected its wearer against death. Ike had fallen into a coma despite its magic, but with other spells, Lucina needed little imagining to believe in the amplifying abilities of a Manakete's tear, so she nodded.

"That was part of what Validar was after," Sothis said. "Sure, his magic could wipe a human's mind into a pretty barren landscape, but imagine how much more sparkling and deadly his toys would have been when equipped with a Manakete tear. I like to think I put up a fight. But he got the better of me." Sothis drummed her feet on the ground and hugged her knees. "A couple times, actually."

With Tiki, Lucina would have put an arm around her slender shoulders. But wouldn't that have been another lie?

"I'm sorry," Lucina said instead.

"Eh, I knew that gray bungler would eventually die like all you humans do. He wasn't the worst part."

"What was?"

Sothis plucked grass and draped the blades on her bare knees. Their fresh scent mingled with the harsher notes of tree barks. The crackling of the campfire had fallen silent a while ago, and it was Lucina's turn to stir the flames, but she made no move.

"Do you have parents?" Sothis then asked.

Roy's face jumped into Lucina's memory first. It was warmer than the carved stone features of Marth and Caeda in the catacombs underneath the glass fortress. But they all shared one thing.

"They passed away," Lucina said.

Sothis nodded. "And did you like them?"

"I…" Lucina faltered and needed to swallow twice before she answered. "Roy was kind to me for the longest time. I believed no greater hero existed. But he had a dark side, and to defend himself against the cruelty he saw in the world, he became cruel himself. I… still miss him. The man I used to saw in him, who would patch up my scraped knees and play chess with me in his study even after he told me I wasn't supposed to enter."

"You wanted to make him proud, didn't you?"

Lucina choked. "Always."

"I wanted to make Naga proud." Sothis twirled the grass blades on her knee into senseless shapes. "I was her only Voice. Of course, she had other creations, dragons, humans, and she had her eyes on them too, but I was special. All these humans prayed to see her, but I was the only one who could, whenever I closed my eyes, I could go back to her realm and her glass palace. Heh, they were all green with envy.

"And then, I got to choose her champion. That never happened before, that she would give me something so important to do, not just whisper into the ears of some Altean king. I swore to pick out the best champion human history had ever seen."

"What made you choose Zelgius?" Lucina asked.

"Ain't that obvious? He was big, strong, handsome, and devoted to destroy all enemies of Naga in Tellius. When I handed him the Starsphere and Alondite, I was sure I had created the perfect champion for Naga. Obviously, I was wrong."

Sothis climbed to her feet and brushed the back of her hand over her face. A single tear-shaped gem dropped into the grass.

"Never count on your parents," she said. "All our life, we stumble and stagger in their footsteps. Because we can't admit to ourselves that we will never catch up. And when we screw up one time too often, they drop us and leave us in that stone hole no matter how long we pray for their help. They can have hundreds of children, that makes replacing one easy. But I only have one Naga." Sothis turned around to Lucina and spread her arms to reveal the whole of her tiny child body. "Have you ever heard of a Manakete without wings? I sure haven't."

Sothis stood there in the dimness, and despite the eons of her lifetime, she looked small. After Cordelia had cut her hair down to shoulder-length, nothing protected her slim arms against the cold.

Lucina silenced her initial reserve, stood up, and wrapped her arms around Sothis. Her shoulders stiffened, but then Sothis surrendered and nuzzled against Lucina's tunic.

"You even smell like her," she said. "Like Naga."

Lucina held her closer, but whether Sothis needed her or the other way around, she couldn't say. "I will make sure you get that bed with fifty pillows," she whispered. "You will have a future without Grima's shadows. And when Naga steps into this world in her new form… maybe she will tell you how proud she is of you. Maybe she will embrace you exactly like this. I will put in a good word for you."

Sothis shook her head and loosened herself out of the embrace. "Sheesh, you're a weird champion. But at least you're not boring. I guess you're pretty alright. If you're the one who unites the spheres… I think I could live with that. Just make sure you're still you afterwards, yeah?"

Lucina smiled. When Sothis hopped back to the campfire to cuddle up between Ike and Cordelia, Lucina remained at the clearing, long after she was supposed the wake Ike for his guard duty. The cold of the Binding Shield on her lap invaded her body, and she sent a prayer of thanks to Naga. No more hesitancy.

Tomorrow, they would reach the Black Knight's fortress. For what would follow then, Lucina would be ready.

Notes: Three more chapters for Book III, the end is near...