After Awakening.
Lucina refused to believe she was a widow. It put her in very limited company.
Oh, they were still searching, her closest friends, her family, and the other Shepherds. All of Ylisse was searching. But after so many long months, it felt like they were searching in vain, although only Severa had been impolite enough to say so.
(Even she only said it once.)
Lucina… Lucina, like her father, still believed. Unlike her father, no part of it came easily. It was an act of defiance to hope her husband, her Robin, was still out there somewhere, waiting to be found.
She could manage it, though. Where she came from, every breath was an act of defiance. Robin had given her a world. She could give him this much trust. And at the end of another long, fruitless day of searching, she went back to her tent, took another breath, and told herself they just weren't looking in the right place. Not yet. But they would. She closed her eyes and told herself that.
"Mom?"
Gah!
She opened them to see her daughter staring at her. (Her oldest daughter, according to the best cleric in Ylissetol, but it would be a few months before Lucina would need to leave the battlefield.)
"What is it, Morgan?"
Morgan took a seat next to Lucina, and a breath.
"Um… I'm not saying I believe this, or there's anything to it, but… but a lot of people asked me what I'd do if dad doesn't… doesn't come back. And I thought I should ask you what to say."
Lucina shook her head.
"Your father is coming back, Morgan."
"Yeah, but… dad said to plan for everything, right? So, he'd want us to plan for that, too. Like, how I should get ready to take over as Ylisse's chief tactician…"
Lucina shuddered. Operation Pitfall was brilliant, of course, but the thought of it with a full country's worth of resources…
"That… won't come for some time, Morgan."
"Don't worry. I'd leave the ideas I get from Aunt Lissa behind if I had to do that. But that's not all. There's also how big a statue to raise to dad…"
"The biggest."
"And, um… if you'd remarry."
Lucina closed her eyes.
"I don't even want to imagine that, Morgan. Your father would hardly be happy to see me cheating on him when he returns. And…"
Think of something Robin would say.
"And I could never in good conscience leave your new stepfather you to deal with unprepared!"
A joke. Morgan smiled, at least.
"Well, I'll give the bachelors of Ylisse the bad news. Thanks mom. Can I stay here tonight? I'm a bit tired from all the searching."
Unsaid: I don't want to lose you too. Lucina nodded, and Morgan curled up next to her for the night.
Lucina would see Robin again soon. She was sure of it.
She just needed to keep things going until then.
After all, if she was sure of one thing, it was that she wasn't a widow.