"But more importantly, do you have a place to stay tonight?"
The darkness of night had fully set in by now, and the spring air was getting rather chilly. My thoughts turned back to parenting mode and prepared to test Lucina a little. I never did get a chance to teach her my craft personally.
"I do. I am staying at an inn by the commercial district for tonight, and I was planning to depart for Ferox ahead of the Shepherds. In our timeline the delegation failed to secure Feroxi support prior to the Plegian war and they only joined several months later. Since uncle Lon'qu was supposed to be the west khan's champion, I was hoping to take advantage of his weakness and guarantee the khan's support this way."
"Not a bad plan. Although with myself as a time traveler as well, I can make sure the Shepherds won't lose to Lon'qu you know."
"Um, perhaps I was also hoping to spar against father too. And maybe some of my comrades were transported to Ferox, I might find them in the capital. We agreed to gather in the nearest large city in case this happened."
Humu. Better than expected, but still adorkable at heart.
I internally breathed a sign of relief at how well the day has gone.
"Ok Lucina, I approve of your plan. I wanted to spend more time with you, but I can't let your efforts go to waste.
"Take this money" I said as I handed Lucina a coin purse, together with a large card drawn from my inner coat pockets, "and this too. This is all the coin I have on hand right now and you need it far more than I do. If you want to make good time to Ferox then use this to buy a fast horse tomorrow. It should be easier than renting or finding a caravan."
"Alright, and what is this?" replied Lucina, holding the card up to examine its intricate metallic borders, and the stylized swordsman depicted on its face.
"This, is a class card. Something I got for you while in Midgard. The card can be used to summon the power of an einherjar, or heroic spirit. Its something they use extensively in the Order of Heroes in Midgard.
To use it, channel your mana inside and call the card's class name, just like you would for a [Fire] tome.
This hero's class is Saber" I put my hand on the card as a demonstration, and while holding back my mana, said "Come forth, Saber! – like this. Now try it."
Lucina nodded, although clearly confused about the new information, and followed my example while pushing her mana into the card, "Come forth, Saber!"
The class card glowed once, before rapidly expanding into motes of visible light, swirling faster and faster until it took on the shape of a person. When the lightshow subsided, there stood in front of us the gallant figure of a blue-haired swordsman bathed in moonlight who was dressed remarkably similar to Lucina.
Turning to face Lucina, the swordsman spoke first, "I ask of you, are you my master?"
A solid ten seconds passed as the two stared at each other before I decided to break the silence.
"Marth, thank you for agreeing to this. This is my daughter Lucina, and as you can see, she is your descendant, as well as a fan. Please protect her well.
Turning to Lucy, I continued, "Lucina, I figured you will need some help with that disguise. This is heroic spirit Marth, he agreed to help you as a favor to me, and Anna modified the card to minimize the mana consumption for you. Now look at your right hand."
Lucy, still a bit stunned, did as I requested, seeing the faint three-part outline of the crest of Naga, otherwise known as the brand of the exalt. I continued with my explanation,
"What you see here is known as command seals. It's not a second manifestation of your brand, rather it signifies the contract between you and a heroic spirit, which just happens to take the shape Naga's blessing. These command seals allow you to greatly empower a command given to your contracted spirit, and imbuing magic you would not otherwise be capable of."
I purposely left the remaining part unsaid, as I hoped Lucy and Marth can work together as equals rather than master and servant, like what the Summoner Kiran tried to do with all of us. I then gently nudged Lucy towards Marth and gestured for her to introduce herself.
Luckily, Lucina managed remember her etiquette lessons far better than Chrom, standing up to greet Marth properly. "My sincerest apologies great Hero-king, I beg your forgiveness for my rudeness. I am Lucina, the future crown princess of the Halidom of Ylisse. Please take care of me."
Marth proceeded to flash his pretty boy smile, naturally defusing the tension. "Hahaha, no need to be so stiff Lucina, it would be my pleasure! Besides I have already met other versions of you in the Order of Heroes, I just never expected you would be my summoner one day."
"Great!" I clapped my hands once to get their attention again. "Now, it is getting very late, and we all have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Lucy, get back to the inn and get some rest. Don't worry about Marth drawing attention, heroic spirits can dematerialize at will. And Marth, please teach Lucina about your abilities, about heroic spirits, and the contract. Do watch out for Risen on the road, more portals may have appeared as a side effect so be careful, okay?"
"Understood mother. I still have so many questions for you but… I am just happy to see you again."
A wave of emotion wells up in me again, not wanting to see my Lucy go. I pull her into a tight hug and Lucina gingerly reciprocates. "I love you Lucy. And… I never got to tell you this before, but, I am so very proud of you. I am not going to ask you to forgive me, but I hope to make it up to you this time."
For a brief moment, we held each other's embrace, and the world seemed to fade away as if nothing else mattered. Then Lucina let go and held me at arm's length, nodded, holding a look of fierce determination just like Chrom would, before turning and running through the hole in the wall. Marth gave me a knowing look, then dematerialized, turning to follow Lucina through the wall.
As Lucina's icon disappeared off the edge of my [map, I stared up at the moon, enjoying this small victory over my fate, then wiped the tears welling up in my eyes.
Just you wait.
I refuse to fail this time.
Trivia corner
Mages of Midgard had long known that fallen warriors become immortalized in Valhalla and Fólkvangr. However, with the advent of the third magic and the holy grail war, summoning these heroes back to the mortal realm became a reality.
Heroic spirit summoning rapidly took on many different forms across the nine realms, yet mysteriously the summoning process always seemed to require some form of prismatic polyhedron. This has led to a phenomenon known as 'gacha addiction', which is the source of most of the Order of Heroes' revenue stream.
The command seals seen here are a degraded version of the Chaldean command seals, which have more limited power over the servant, and can regenerate after use with sufficient mana. The dream cycle and appraising the status of other servants are not included in this package.
AN
Here comes the Fate mechanics. Servants and class cards are not going to play a huge role in the story, but I brought in Marth mostly because Robin came through Midgard/Askr and would have known about Lucina's 'Marth' disguise in advance, so it makes sense for Lucina to have learned from Marth at some point.
The first DLC Xenologue which unlocks Marth is fairly early, and Lucina is known for impersonating Marth. Based on Smash, Lucina and Marth have similar builds and near identical movesets. It doesn't make much sense if future past Lucina had only learned the sword as a child from Chrom, who has a bulkier, masculine build, and different moveset.
You could argue that by Lucina's moveset in Warriors, she has much more overlap with Chrom, but then again IS doesn't even bother putting Rowan/Lianna into FEH so…
PS two more parts are planned for chaper 2.