Awakening Supports Chapter 4: C Rank: Willow and Akiri, a fire emblem fanfic

Me: Wow, two chapters in one day - it's unheard of! In all seriousness I messed up and had to redo the previous chapter before I posted it, and by the time I realized it I'd already had this chapter ready to go. Anyways, I really hope that you're all enjoying this little side story, and I hope to publish the next chapter of Siblings, Amnesia, and Assassins some time very soon. Anyways, I'd like to once again say I do not own the rights to Fire Emblem, though I own several of the games and my OCs (which includes Robin and Willow - my interpretation of them anyway). That said the characters available to be requested for a Conversation are listed below as usual, so please feel free to ask for them:

Chrom

Lissa

Frederick

Robin

Willow

Akiri

Sully

Virion

Vaike

Stahl

Miriel

Sumia

Kellam

And with that here's the C Rank Support for Willow and Akiri.

C Rank Support: Willow and Akiri

~After Shepherds; In Camp~

Willow was roaming through the camp, thought of the earlier battle running through her mind. Fighting the Risen was easier than fighting the brigands in Southtown had been. Even so, Willow found it hard to sleep. She'd considered finding Chrom and speaking to him, but the Prince was in the middle of meeting with Robin and Frederick. Willow had a feeling it dealt with the scouting mission the knight, Akiri and Stahl had taken before the battle. The three had seemed troubled when they'd returned, and that had concerned the dark haired woman. However, whatever they'd seen hadn't been addressed so Willow had put it out of her mind until now.

"You see troubled. Care to talk about it?" Akiri's voice had Willow jumping in fright and spinning to face her. Akiri seemed to find the other's reaction amusing; at least if the look on the former assassin's face was anything to go by.

"You nearly scared the life out of me!" Willow said, slightly louder than she'd intended as he hand hovered over her beating heart.

"My apologies," the brunette woman said, "But I thought you saw me, or at least heard me walk up. Your brother reacted in much the same way when I spoke with him a while back," Akiri's last comment was added as an afterthought and seemed more like the former assassin was thinking aloud. Willow could imagine how her brother reacted; she had a vague recollection of her brother easily being scared.

"That's not all that surprising, honestly. Anyways what did you want?" Willow asked ignoring the pain that had arisen when she'd tried to pull more of her memory forth.

Akiri's gaze had a concerned light to it – she hadn't missed the subtle twitch of pain that stole across Willow's face, but ignored it for the moment, "Actually, it seemed more like you wanted something; you seemed troubled."

"It's nothing of importance," Willow said, "It was more that I was thinking about earlier."

"Having a hard time dealing with death?" Akiri question the mage.

Willow shook her head, "No… well, yes, but that's not what's troubling me. I was actually thinking about your scouting mission with Frederick and Stahl. When you three returned you seemed upset and concerned," Willow's words seemed to surprise the former assassin slightly, "But no one said anything, and then the Risen attacked which was a much bigger problem at the time."

"So, not that you have the time to think about it, it's the only thing on your mind," Akiri summarized the dark haired woman's words.

"Basically," Willow admitted with a slight nod, "Can you tell me what you saw?"

Akiri was silent as she thought the question over. Willow shifted nervously as she waited for the brunette's reply. Then just as Akiri opened her mouth to answer Willow spoke again.

"If you can't say anything that's fine," the mage said, "If that's the case, I'm sorry for asking."

The former assassin chuckled lightly before she finally replied, "If you'll give me a moment you'll find out," Willow rubbed the back of her head sheepishly as Akiri continued, "Chrom wanted us to keep quiet earlier, but only so the others wouldn't be distracted. Now that the day's almost over I doubt he'd object to me telling you; you'd hear about it sooner or later anyways," the brunette paused before continuing on in a serious voice, "But it wasn't good – are you sure you want to know?"

To her credit Willow didn't hesitate before replying, "No I'm not sure at all, but if I don't I won't be able to stop thinking about it. Morover, if I hear it now, from you, there's little chance I'll get over exaggerated or false information, right?"

"Well, you're probably not wrong," Akiri said with a smile before become serious once more, "Frederick, Stahl and I were sent to investigate a merchant caravan that Frederick had spotted. The merchants themselves were nowhere to be found, but they were clearly attacked."

"Attacked… why? For the goods they carried?" Willow asked clearly confused by this information.

Akiri shook her head, "It doesn't seem likely as all the goods had been vastly untouched. At most some were scattered about, but nothing was truly missing."

"Then why…?" the dark haired woman trailed off before a thought seemed to strike her, "Slavers?"

"Again not likely," Akiri stated, "Slavers still probably would have taken the supplies," the former assassin looked towards the tent that Robin, Chrom and Frederick were currently meeting in, "Your brother has a theory. What that theory is… well, I don't know but I have an idea. An idea I hope I'm sincerely wrong about."

The implications slowly sank in causing Willow's eyes to widen in horrified realization. Akiri sent the dark haired woman a knowing look. Still in shock Willow excused herself, turning to head to her tent. As she made her way to her temporary sleeping quarters on the march to Regna Ferox she found herself hoping that her brother and Akiri were wrong about their theory.

Me: And there we go. Not as long as some of the others, but still not bad. So, I hope you all return for the next Support Conversation when that comes up. And as I stated last Chapter the list of characters is once again below, just as a reminder: