''Checkmate.''
Lucina declared with an almost bored tone. Playing chess against her sister was an entire world different then playing against their uncle. There was little challenge in it, Cynthia was a terrible player who had no concept of planning ahead. She would usually only move one or two pieces (typically her queen) which made it easy for Lucina to read her intentions.
Is this how Uncle Robin sees me whenever we play?
Lucina wondered silently, as her sister groaned at her latest defeat. It was concerning that Cynthia had such a poor grasp of basic tactics even when they should both had been receiving the same education, but then again Cynthia did not have Robin as her tutor. None in court seemed to be bothered at this however, and Lucina suspected it was because Cynthia was not the heir of the kingdom, but a mere spare. It might be a condescending and uncomfortable thought to be considered to be a mere ''spare'', but it did mean that her sister had a bit more leeway to do with her time as she pleased. Not much was expected of her, unlike Lucina herself.
Lucina felt a tang of jealousy at her sister, but quickly buried it when she saw her sister smile, having already forgotten about her latest defeat. She admired her sister for that, to always be able to keep her chin up no matter the situation.
''Hey hey Lucy! Let's do something else! How about we go out and play with the others?''
Tempting as it might be, Lucina knew she had a duty to fulfil.
''No Cynthia, you know we can't do that. I know that you're behind your studies, tactics especially!''
Cynthia pouted at this.
''Says you. And how is playing chess supposed to help me better understand tactics? It's a flat board! Can't see how it has anything to do with what Sir Taylan tells me.''
Lucina had once asked her uncle the same thing.
''It's a more practical way of learning the principles of tactics. It forces you to consider several factors and the position of multiple units in order to outmanoeuvre your opponent in a more visual setting. All of these are key factors in warfare.''
Lucina prided herself for being able to recall her uncle's words to the letter, Cynthia for her part seemed to consider her words for a moment, before replying with a deadpan expression.
''Nope, still doesn't makes sense to me. What does half of that even mean?''
Lucina felt herself blush, she didn't know how to tell it any different either, it had just made sense when her uncle had said it, but Lucina felt herself lost for words on how to tell it again in her own words.
''You'll understand it one day, or just ask Uncle Robin! He's really smart when it comes to stuff like that. Another game?''
Her sister gave her one of her mischievous smiles.
''Oh really? You sure like to praise him a lot, but sure let's play another game...''
As they returned their chess pieces to their original positions, Cynthia picked up her queen piece and looked at it with an absentmindedly expression.
''Say Lucy…since you're going to be like this queen one day, so who is going to be your king?''
Lucina gave her sister a sharp look. It was not the first time that her sister had asked her this, and she knew it was one of Cynthia's trick questions. Her sister was always looking for ways she could tease her.
Last time a similar question had been asked, Lucina had foolishly answered that she would like their father to be the king. For this she was teased mercilessly by her friends and sister for weeks.
Lucina for her part failed to see what was so amusing about her choice. Why would she not choose a king like her father? He was the strongest and most dependable man she knew. She had asked her mother about it, and her mother had replied with something in the direction that it was not appropriate for her father to be named king twice. It had to be someone outside of her family.
The older sister smiled internally; This time she had an answer that Cynthia wouldn't be able to make fun of.
''Uncle Robin of course!''
It was an obvious choice; Lucina knew that a good king needed to be strong, dutiful, and wise. Barring her father, Robin was the only person she could think of that would fulfil all those traits. And despite being considered to be her ''uncle'', Lucina knew that he was not directly related to them in any capacity.
If she had expected Cynthia to be impressed with her answer, she was sadly mistaken. Cynthia burst out in a fit of childish giggles and began to cast some strange eyes at her older sister, as if she had figured out some juicy secret. The prospect of their uncle being king to Lucina's queen seemed if anything more hilarious to her sister, much to Lucina's confusion.
Needless to say, much to Lucina's chagrin, Cynthia would be able to milk this for months.
''This is an outrage! Pure as the Exalt?! Ludicrous! Absurd! What in the seven hells is Naga doing? Was it not her that sent us here to stop him?! Has that so called Goddess gone mad?!''
As expected, the news about the Voice's opinion about the tactician didn't go well with her companions, least of all Kjelle.
Lucina and her companions were currently on a scouting mission for the army. That was officially what they were supposed to do at least, in truth this mission had been set in motion by Lucina and arranged by Laurent who saw to it that the group conveniently would only consist of the time-displaced children. The area they had been assigned to survey consisted of a flat countryside, broken only by the occasional gathering of trees. This was all well, since it made it easy for the group to ensure that no one would be spying on them and the desolate state of the area ensured their privacy, as they discussed the latest turn of events.
''Careful with ya words Kjelle. I may be considered a poor priest, but I'm a priest, nevertheless. Do not speak ill of the Goddess. Surely, she must have her reasons.''
Kjelle cast a cold look at Brady, a clear indication on how little she thought about his veneration of the Goddess. Lucina knew that the hot-headed knight was about to loudly refute the priest, she knew it would not serve that her companions would bicker amongst themselves, but she too currently had little goodwill towards their Goddess.
Never before had she felt such humiliation at the audience with the Voice of Naga, back then she would have argued against the Voice's declaration, to protest and deny it as a mistake. But she had learned from her earlier rash actions; It would not do to oppose the words of the Goddess.
And so, she swallowed her pride and outwardly accepted it. Even now she felt a bitter taste in her mouth, as she had forced herself to apologize to that traitor before her father and everyone present at the Mila tree. Her father, eager to restore the peace, had greatly approved of her apology, while that traitor with a nauseating tender smile had declared that there was nothing to forgive.
It had taken all her willpower to not just stab that snake then and there with Falchion.
But while she officially had given up on her accusation that the tactician was a traitor to Ylisse, it was only so officially. Words were wind after all, and Lucina fully intended to continue her efforts to expose him even if it seemed as if the world went against her.
Bringing herself to the present, Lucina decided to end her two companions bickering before it could devolve any further.
''Enough with that! We're not getting anywhere with this! It's clear that the Naga of this timeline and ours is not the same, and it was a mistake to rely on her to expose that lying traitor.''
Brady made a stubborn expression.
''Surely Naga must have felt something? Didn't she or the Voice say anything else?''
Lucina could not stop herself from making an annoyed frown at this.
''Not anything useful or something we don't already know. Only that there was indeed some unknown evil in this world that seeks to undo the sealing of the fell dragon Grima, and that only the rite of Awakening can prevent this…''
Kjelle snorted derisively at this.
''Unknown evil? That's rich. Is she blind or something? The evil is right in front of her! That audience was useless!''
While the knight's outrage and frustration mirrored the princess's own, Lucina choose to stay silent. This conversation was moving in circles. Yet their visit to the Mila tree had not been all fruitless as the knight claimed. They now knew how to prevent the return of Grima and how to perform the rite of Awakening.
In order to perform the rite, they needed to collect the five legendary gemstones of the Fire Emblem; Argent, Azure, Gules, Vert and Sable. Of these five they already possessed two, Argent which secretly was in her father's possession and Azure, which had been held by the Voice herself.
Lucina wondered if that was her father had tried to do back in her own timeline, before he was betrayed by the man, he had considered to be his best friend?
The princess wondered why the Voice in her timeline never even mentioned the Rite as a possibility to stop the fell dragon. Maybe because she knew that the stones had already been lost?
Before she could think about it further, Severa spoke up.
''But what in oblivion are we supposed to do now? We can't bloody kill that bastard if Naga herself has spoken for his innocence!''
Kjelle had a simple answer to this.
''Who says that we cannot? To hell with proving something we already know to be true, I say that we concentrate our efforts again to just kill him before he can do anything. Keep it clean, keep it simple!''
Laurent, who had remained silent for most of their scouting mission protested at this.
''Need I remind you that we need his expertise for this war? Which is still pretty much active and ongoing at this point?''
At this Kjelle was dismissive.
''We can deal with the Conqueror; He is after all just a man. What we can't is that friggin huge dragon that blot out the sun and raise the dead with its mere presence!''
''Are you willing to gamble the future of Ylisse on that? Have you seen the rapports; The forces arrayed against us? The casualties would be enormous…''
What the knight thought about that was never made clear, as it was a price that the princess was not willing to pay.
''Laurent is right, as much as it pains me to admit it. Tempting as it may be, we'll refrain from killing that traitor for now, but keep an eye out for any openings that we might exploit later…''
At this Severa and Laurent merely nodded, while Kjelle seemed to peak up a bit at her last statement.
''It would be my pleasure.''
The princess continued.
''We'll continue as we have done till now. Hopefully the second team will return soon with something that we might be able to use later.''
Lucina looked around to see if anyone had any inquiries and noticed that Brady didn't seem to have even listened to her. In fact, he had stopped followed them as they slowly moved through the empty landscape and starred distantly across the planes to the south a few steps behind them.
''Brady?''
The bluenette asked with concern as she approached him.
''Say…Does any of ya see smoke behind that hill?''
Lucina squinted her eyes and could indeed see faint traces of smoke rising in the air.
''Laurent…Is there anything behind that hill according to your maps?''
The mage consulted his tome before answering.
''Yes…Just a small village, to small to be a suitable mustering area for any army of significance…''
Before he could continue, Lucina had already decided what to do.
''Let's investigate it, better to be sure then sorry later.''
As they carefully approached the top of the small hill, they could see the source of the smoke.
There were indeed a village at the bottom of the hill, but it might not be so much longer. What seemed to be bandits was in the process of raiding it, but they were not allowed to do so unopposed. A few of the villagers had naturally taken arms against the outlaws, trying to sell their lives as dearly as possible. It would still have been one-sided fight, if not for some unique figures amongst the poorly equipped villagers.
Standing out were two swordsmen, who clearly knew how to fight. One seemed normal enough, engaging his foes with a grace and dexterity of a dancer. The other was a bit more unique, while his bladework was good it was filled with unnecessary movements and posses that seemed to confuse both the bandits and the villagers.
Lastly the villagers were helped by two fliers. One was a Pegasi rider, while the other was a Wyvern rider. An odd pair to say the least.
While these four defended themselves well enough, it would just be a matter of time before they would be overrun.
Given how this was not their fight, one would normally just pull back and rapport this to the army. However, Lucina and her companions immediately recognised the four mercenaries fighting on the behalf of the villagers and knew that this was not an option.
Quickly Lucina surveyed the battlefield; Employing everything she had been thought so long ago before giving her companions their orders.
''We need to move quick! Kjelle! You go front and centre, draw their attention! Me and Severa will secure your flanks. Laurent! Support! Brady! Take out your axe! We going to need to close in as soon as possible and we'll need all hands for this but stay behind Kjelle! Our target is their leader. The one with the wolf head! Move out!''
Finally found some time to write again ^^ Will have more time to write this with greater frequency and consistency for the next month.
And with this all the children characters will be accounted for. Next chapter will be Lucina again and a direct continuation of this.
Thank you all for reading and commenting ^.^