Imperial Year 1184
The Month of the Great Tree Moon
The First Day Of Spring
Dried mud and black rocks. That was what the skin of his remains resembled when his body was slumped before Felix. There was no golden hair to speak of on what had been his head, and pieces of him were missing where the cindered flesh faded into bones.
Felix heard the gasp and sob of Ingrid somewhere behind him, but she might as well have been miles away from where he stood, transfixed.
The metal armor must have pressed against his skin like a branding rod, Felix found himself thinking numbly as he looked over the body.
He looked again at the face of the thing that lay before him. It had, almost, been burnt beyond recognition. But, the flames hadn't done enough to obscure the familiarity of those features he knew so well. Felix felt almost unconscious with the shock of it all as he stared down at what had, at one time, been the man he was supposed to protect with his life.
He had allowed this to happen.
"Now then." The emperor standing across from Dimitri's corpse spoke in a heavy voice. Felix's eyes remained fixed downward, not looking up to meet her gaze.
"I believe we have terms of surrender to discuss."
Imperial Year 1180
4 Years Earlier
Felix's reflection stared back at him with a dour expression as he pulled at the insufferably stiff tunic currently threatening to strangle his neck.
"Do I really have to wear this ridiculous thing?" He asked as he batted off the arm of his old man, who reached out behind him in an attempt to straighten the Fraldarius cape. "And what's the deal with making the boar's coronation into this much of an ordeal, anyway? We're likely about to deal with civil conflict, as well as tensions with the Empire. We don't have time for this frivolousness," he said sharply as he gave his old man a glare through the mirror.
They were currently in Fhirdiad, the Kingdom's capital, where in the previous week their forces had unseated and slain the former regent. There had been much turmoil and infighting that had spilled out in the days following, and taking the time for some showy ceremony hardly seemed like a practical idea in Felix's opinion.
"His Highness's ascent to the throne is nothing to shrug off," the old man sighed as he extended his hand again, this time successfully managing to straighten out the cape before Felix could deflect the unwanted contact. "It is important that the archbishop be able to properly ordain him to back the legitimacy of his claim. And the people of Faerghus need a true king, not a temporary regent." Felix rolled his eyes at this, feeling a deep sense of annoyance surrounding the whole ordeal.
The boar had been … slipping, as of late. That whole business in Remire village had dented the mask of his usual demeanor and, from there, the beast had only grown more unpredictable.
In terms of who ascended the throne, Felix could concede there wasn't much of an option left to them. The boar's uncle, a man recently exposed to be one of the instigators in the Tragedy of Duscur, was dead now. Head chopped clean off his shoulders, just as the late king's was.
And it wasn't as if there hadn't been reason enough for the boar to kill him. The man had committed treason, attempted to seize the throne for himself, and made outlandish accusations of house Fraldarius puppeteering the boar in some way.
All traitors get put to the sword. It was the boar's duty as the next king to do so.
Felix knew all this well and good, but it still seemed hard to shake a sense of growing unease.
"Whatever. I'm just waiting for this whole nonsense to be over and done with so we can turn our attention toward the ensuing fight," Felix muttered resentfully, electing to not open the lid too much on his thoughts. He made one last attempt to wrestle with the fabric of the stuffy outfit before turning his gaze away from the mirror.
"Let's just get this over with," he sighed, meaning to pace toward the door — but was stopped by his father's hand coming to rest on his shoulder.
"Not so fast," came his old man's voice as Felix turned to give him a questioning scowl. "Sit down," He said as he placed his bag down and took a seat on a nearby couch, gesturing for Felix to do the same.
"Ugh," Felix scoffed as he remained standing. "Can we make this quick?"
"For once would you please just…" the old man began, impatience creeping into his tone before he seemed to catch it and take a deep breath. He closed his eyes momentarily. "No. Not today. The truth is, I feel we need to talk."
Felix, sensing an ensuing lecture, begrudgingly took a seat and resigned himself to hear out whatever foolishness the man wished to depart onto him under the guise of 'fatherly advice.'
"For the longest time, I considered it my life's mission to ensure that Lambert's son assumed the throne … now, all of that is about to be said and done," he began slowly. Felix listened with his eyes remaining focused anywhere but his father's face. "With potential conflict ensuing … neither of us knows which day could be our last, so we should both ensure there's no lingering regret when the time comes."
"…Well, this is off to a grim start," Felix said slowly with deliberate evenness to his tone as he studied the wall across from them, apprehensive. "…What is it you wanted to talk about?"
"I wanted to apologize for what I said about Glenn," He heard his old man say suddenly, as Felix's eyes snapped toward him. "It was ill-put, and I'm sorry … I should never have said such a thing in your presence," His father went on. He wore a sunken, ashamed expression.
Felix gave his old man a side-eyed, skeptical look at the assertion. It wouldn't be the first time his old man had apologized for what he'd said. Yet somehow, every time he did so, it only served to make Felix feel a renewed sense of bitterness.
"If you're going to explain yourself, then you'd better get one with it."
"Then I will not mince words … I, too, was mortified by Glenn's death," His father continued, tipping his head slightly. "Yet … he perished a hero."
Felix closed his eyes, feeling resentfully unsurprised.
"He chose that life for himself and he chose that death. He fought to protect the future of Faerghus - and his friend -until his dying breath. As his father, I -"
"Shut up!" Felix snapped, not allowing him to continue with this charade for even one second longer. He opened his eyes to turn and glower at the old man. "You're a damned fool, you know that?"
"Felix," the old fool began in a warning tone, a light scowl now forming on his own face as well. "I will not tolerate such language from you."
"Then get up and leave if you don't wish to hear what I have to say," Felix scoffed as he stood from the couch cushions. "But you've grown senile if you think I would sit through you touting on and on about how he chose that death," Felix countered in a low growl of a voice as he scowled down at the old man. "You don't know what he was thinking. Neither of us do … And neither of us ever will."
There was a pause of silence between them, only filled with the faint sound of wind blowing against the palace's walls from outside.
"You're right - I don't know for certain," his old man said in a quieter voice as his eyes shifted down to the bag in his hands. Slowly and deliberately, he brought out a large golden shield from within the bag. He studied their family's hero's relic, looking thoughtful. "But … I know what I would've done if I had been there. I would have safeguarded His Highness, at all costs. I know that it wasn't in Glenn's nature to flee, either," his father went on, continuously scratching away at the old wound that belonged to both of them.
"And you, Felix? What would your choice have been?" His old man asked, turning his eyes on his son with a meaningful expression on his face. "Would you have abandoned His Highness to save yourself?"
Before Felix could fire off another retort his father was, for some reason, standing up to extend the Aegis Shield his way. Felix didn't answer as he looked between the shield and his father, momentarily distracted from his anger as he questioned why the relic was suddenly being thrust on him.
"I've been meaning to find a good time to pass this on to you," his father clarified. "I once used this relic often as the shield of Faerghus … and I truly wish to believe that, someday, this legacy could find its way to you as its new successor."
Felix looked down at the shield in the old man's hands as a slow, painful feeling gripped him. It wasn't as if his father didn't do this sort of thing every now and then … talk to him as if he were saying goodbye. But this was the first time he had ever done so while trying to pass an inheritance to him.
"You speak as if you've got one foot in the grave, old man," Felix stated dryly after a beat of silence. He awkwardly took the relic in his arms, feeling uncomfortable with where the conversation had drifted off to and not knowing how to reseal the lid on this topic.
He glanced back to his old man, waiting for some form of argument to the contrary but … none came. There was something there in the old man's quiet stare, something about the lack of challenge in his silence that didn't sit right with Felix.
"I'm done talking about this," he muttered after a pause as his eyes drifted to the floor, feeling the indignation in him being replaced with a dull ache. "There's never any point to exchanging words with you, beyond a headache."
He had ended up accepting the shield, not seeing a reason to turn his nose up at combat equipment being freely given to him. But that conversation had irked him throughout the ceremony, and the entire day.
He hadn't given his old man an answer to his question about what he would have done in Glenn's place. But he found himself thinking on it again as he watched the boar prince become the boar king over the course of the ceremony. With how reckless the boar had been of late … it was hard to deny that the beast's endangerment was something he was …wary of.
But still, the whole question was stupid, Felix thought to himself. Everything was always about courage or cowardice with the old man … when lives are at stake, warriors only have their instincts and skills. Felix's skills should be enough to get both him and whoever he fought alongside out of danger, if the need arose.
Yes, that was right, Felix decided with conviction. There was little point in speculating on the old man's foolish questions.