Fire Emblem Fan Fiction ❯ Fire Emblem-Path of Radiance: Love Sonata ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Falchion1984: Okay, here we go. Now, this next chapter will probably be old stuff to some of you since it'll involve a lot of reflection on Ike's past actions. Most of this stuff occurred in the game or in Support Conversations but one or two events in here occurred during `Divergence.' In any case, here I make a lot of guesses regarding Elincia's life prior to the game. Being a King, and one trying to conceal his daughter's existence for fear of national turmoil, it stands to reason that King Ramon had few chances to spend time with Elincia. I would imagine that, since she seemed closer to Duke Renning in the game, her uncle was a different story completely though this still fails to explain the oddity in the plot about why he'd be so affectionate of a potential rival for the Throne.

 

Mist: Has anyone ever told you that politics is bad for you?

 

Falchion1984: It is?

 

Mist: I rest my case.

 

Falchion1984: How about you take care of the disclaimer?

 

Mist: Like I have a choice? Falchion1984 doesn't own Fire Emblem, just this story and any O.C's he comes up with. *Shudders*

 

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(Elincia)

 

The sunlight gleamed and reflected sharply off the masonry of Castle Crimea and the infinity of cobblestones below stinging Elincia's eyes and her brow was already perspiring under the sun's wrath. Summer was heavy upon Crimea and Elincia was bewildered at just how hot the city could get, and even more so at the sight of people actually working in such heat. Still, she could not suppress a flush of admiration for the countless Beorc and Laguz laborers that were reviving Melior with every work of their hands, every exertion of their bodies and every gallon of sweat that demarked their efforts.

 

At least, she supposed there were gallons of it. It was certainly hot enough.

 

And, beyond the restoration of her realm, she was looking upon the unfolding of a dream. Her father and uncle had, for many years, worked with King Caineghis to build a lasting peace between the Beorc and the Laguz. More than a few called the dream impossible, others still called it madness, and that dream had cost King Ramon and Duke Renning their lives. And, it seemed, during her and the Greil Mercenaries' visit to Port Toha, that the dream had died with those two men. Yet, she had been proven wrong. The tale of the Crimean Liberation Army, the impossibly mismatched fighting force of Beorc and Laguz soldiers, had spread from Crimean to Crimean, from town to town and from country to country until there wasn't one person that did not know it.

 

Now, people had begun to believe in the dream because they believed in the tale and its heroes. And, because of that tale and its heroes, the dream was coming to life.

 

That musing brought a pang of regret that her father and uncle hadn't lived to see this day. Her father, she admitted, had little time for her. She had long known that her birth had been something of an accident, occurring after Crimea's Throne had been offered to her uncle, Duke Renning, and her existence was known to only a carefully chosen few. Too often surrounded by bodyguards who'd taken no oath of secrecy and loose-lipped, opportunistic Courtiers, King Ramon had few chances to slip away to see his daughter. But, none of that meant, for a minute, that he didn't love her.

 

Renning had been another story completely. He had been a regular visitor to the Royal Villa where she'd been raised, had been a connection between Elincia and her oft absent parents by relaying messages and, in later years, he'd instructed her in riding her Pegasus and using her sword. At the culmination of the War, she'd finally put those lessons to good use.

 

Thinking about the War caused her to scan the tangled rivers of moving figures below, seeking a certain blue haired head. Ike would be down there, working and sweating and struggling to evade all those fathers eager to push their daughters on him and driving the local Seneschal ballistic. The latter portion of that thought made her snicker; Ike's less-than-Lordly habits had raised the ire of more than a few others.

 

Elincia suspected that Sanaki would've tried to strangle Ike at least once during their time in Begnion, even though the child-like Apostle would likely have needed a ladder to reach his neck.

 

Elincia's vantage point offered an excellent view of Ike. He was now putting the finishing touches on one of Melior's newly rebuilt houses and, right on cue, the father of the family that would occupy it materialized, pulled Ike into a bear hug and doubtless mentioned that he had an attractive daughter. As soon as that father was out of eyeshot, Ike turned and rubbed at his temples irritably. Elincia snickered again, but it came out hallow. When would one of those limitless female admirers be met with something besides a polite refusal? She didn't know, she didn't want to think about it, and yet she knew she had to.

 

Ike had come into her life, and Crimea's, by an accident of history. He did not ask to be the one to see her safely to Gallia nor did he request to be the one to escort her to Begnion. No one had ordered him to rebuke the Apostle's mockery and he'd made it abundantly clear how much he hated the idea of being made a Lord. And, with his father's death and the command of the Mercenary Company having fallen to him, he surely wanted to return to his old life. He wasn't one to be tied down and if anyone deserved to be free it was him. Though the thought of it stabbed at her heart, she knew that she'd have to relinquish him. She knew that he would, sooner or later, request to be released from her service and he'd go back to the people he loved and the life he needed to put back in order.

 

So, why hadn't he done that by now?

 

He hated the Nobility, its selfishness and prejudices, and he'd been put in his position by, as he himself had said, matters of time and circumstance. She knew that he wanted to discard his unwanted title but, two years on, he was still here. He'd work for hours in rebuilding Melior, erecting houses or cleaning cisterns or clearing away rubble before handing off a report on the Greil Mercenaries' latest findings in the ongoing hunt for Ashnard Loyalists, and he'd depart in the early evening for the Mercenary Fort. Whenever he passed through the Triumphal Gate, Elincia suspected that he wouldn't be coming back. And yet, he always did. He'd come through the Triumphal Gate every day, just after six in the morning, like clockwork. And, he'd made no recent mention of renouncing his title.

 

But, why not?

 

This conundrum, coupled with the unceasing stress of her early reign, had left her head full of fog that seemed to thicken and solidify into a frost of bewilderment and dread. She couldn't make Ike's actions make sense. He didn't need his title to be working in the Reconstruction; Crimea was in no position to turn away capable volunteers. He didn't need it to be hunting down Crimea's lingering foes; willing hunters were scarce and in great need. He didn't need it to enter Melior or Castle Crimea; she'd personally flog anyone who tried to bar him from doing so. He didn't need his title to be respected, half the continent idolized him. And, he didn't need his title to be important to her, he'd be thus forever.

 

Had something…changed? In him? In how he felt or thought? She didn't know, she hoped not, even though she knew Ike well after all their time together, his thoughts were ever an enigma. She didn't want to think that the extraordinary young man who'd enchanted her had been altered. Not after all they'd been through together, not after everything they'd done and endured and not after she'd fallen in love with him.

 

There, that was the truth of it. That truth had long lingered below the veil of her subconscious and had, finally, traversed into her mind. And, that stabbing pain in her heart sharpened. Because she knew that nothing would come of it, even the times they'd kissed had been more impulse than anything else. If anything, telling this to Ike would likely ruin their friendship. She reminded herself that he deserved to be free and resigned herself to let him go.

 

She was about to turn away when something caught her eye. Ike, after once again mopping at his brow, stretched his arms up and back. His hands found the back of his shirt and jerked it up and over his head. She suddenly found herself rooted to the spot as the damp, crusty garment was unceremoniously dropped to the cobblestones, where the now cringing Seneschal retrieved it, and left Ike's powerfully built torso exposed. Elincia's eyes roamed over Ike's sculpted chest, his broad shoulders, his powerful arms, even more muscular from so many weeks at work in Melior, and his flat, muscle rippled stomach. The sight, which caused a peculiar stirring somewhere between her legs, hit her like a fist. She already knew he wasn't hers to have and seeing his muscular form exposed to her, admittedly appreciative, eyes had rubbed salt in the wound.

 

`Whoever he chooses,' she mused tiredly, `will be a most fortunate woman.'

 

(Lucia)

 

Lucia found Elincia on the Castle Balcony, gazing out upon the fast rebuilding Crimean capitol and pretending that she wasn't staring at a certain someone. The pretense was a waste of time, Lucia had known Elincia practically since she was born and, beyond that, Elincia was never skilled at lying. Lucia followed her gaze, seeking that telltale mane of unruly, azure hair. She soon spotted him, shoveling debris into carts for removal and…

 

`Oh my!' she silently exclaimed.

 

Somewhere in the course of the work day, Ike had removed his shirt. That likely contributed to the rapt fascination that Elincia was pretending not to direct at him. Not that Lucia could blame the Queen, Ike was quite handsome and the effect of the long hours of labor was evident in his now Herculean frame. When Lucia first met him, after the Crimean Liberation Army had crossed the Riven Bridge and reentered Crimea during the War, she'd found him puzzling. He was a Mercenary, but he didn't act like one. He was blunt, to be sure, but not crude. His manners could use some work, but she'd be hard pressed to call him rude. And, there wasn't a gram of vulgarity in him. When they learned of the siege of Delbray Castle, and she'd instructed Ike to take the Army southward and away from the Daein contingent, she'd been angered when he casually disregarded her orders and went to Delbray's aid.

 

In hindsight, she was glad that he did. Geoffrey had been commanding the troops at Delbray, intending to act as a sacrificial lamb to divert the Daein forces away from Elincia, and Lucia had no idea how she'd tell her father that she'd left her brother to die.

 

Lucia could read Elincia's expression well enough; the two of them knew each other almost as well as they knew themselves. She could see the admiration and wistful longing that painted itself across Elincia's eyes when see looked in Ike's direction and Ike had been protective, and yet open and respectful, toward Elincia. It was obvious that they'd grown close during the War, she could see it in the easy manner in which they spoke to each other and how, when Elincia took the field, the two of them had become a lethal team almost instantly. Then, there was Ike's visit to the Throne Room which had helped the newly crowned Queen to gather her wits and courage. And, to top it all off, Lucia had been within earshot when, at the signing of the Treaty of Serenes, Sanaki and Elincia had been discussing whether or not Ike would involve himself in Crimea's governance. Elincia admitted that it was doubtful but said she'd be `of gladdened heart' if he did. She did not say that for just anybody.

 

Lucia had some suspicions about what this all meant, in fact these suspicions had played a role in her inducing Geoffrey to be sent to Gallia for the officer exchange program. Her brother had been enthralled with Elincia during his youth, and had admitted it to Lucia after considerable prying on her part. Geoffrey has assured her that he'd gotten over it, and she believed him. But, if her suspicions were correct it would be best if he was absent.

 

Funny as Lucia found Elincia's farce of indifference toward the shirtless Ike, which was becoming more and more transparent by the second, she decided that she needed answers. She moved one hand in front of Elincia's un-responding eyes and snapped her fingers.

 

(Elincia)

 

Startled by the sudden explosion of sound that had burst from in front of her, Elincia jumped as if she'd been pricked by a needle. Breathing hard, she whirled to confront Lucia, who was struggling to remain expressionless. Lucia eventually submerged the laughter Elincia knew she was restraining and spoke.

 

“Apologizes, Your Majesty,” she informed her liege. “You seemed…far away.”

 

Those words had, unwitting though it was, struck a little close to home. In a manner of speaking, Elincia had been far away. She'd been away, far away, from Castle Crimea and Melior and her fragile Monarchy and all the political quagmire and laborious Reconstruction that surrounded her on all sides. Lucia had interrupted a rather spectacular fantasy that involved her and Ike as simple Mercenaries out in the countryside.

 

And, the notion was appealing.

 

Ike and the Greil Mercenaries had been the only people, aside from Lucia, Geoffrey, her parents and uncle, who had treated her as a person and a friend rather than some coveted jewel to be hidden away from unfriendly eyes. And, the notion of parting ways with them, with Ike, was more painful that she could imagine. Granted, Ike was still here but the sight of him in Melior with the notion of his inevitable departure hanging over her made his presence a slow poison in her veins. The notion of staying with them, either of her being of common birth or her letting the crown pass from her inexperienced hands into another's, echoed in her mind with its seductive promise of finally having Ike. As a friend, as a confidant and, perhaps, something more given time.

 

But, she knew she could not betray her father and uncle's memory nor the hard-won trust of Caineghis and her people for her own gratification.

 

Elincia knew that her station was a solitary one, one that demanded countless sacrifices upon the altar of duty and selfless love of the realm and its people. And yet, when she took one, forbidden look inward at her own desires, she saw that she wanted Ike, despite the impropriety of it all. But, she just kept reminding herself that it would be selfish to keep him here, and even more so to leave with him, and that she needed to let him go.

 

As if reacting to her thoughts, the frost in her head sent a fresh wave of chills through her brain at the prospect of his eventual departure.

 

“Well,” Lucia began, tentatively, “he is handsome, isn't he?”

 

Elincia felt herself blush, though she fought it down. Why did she have to bring that up?! She had been working to shove the image of Ike below the surface of her subconscious, even if she couldn't tear her eyes away from him, but Lucia's comment had shattered her half-hearted efforts.

 

“Even after everything, Ike still puzzles me,” Lucia admitted.

 

After she was fairly certain that her face no longer had the coloration of a ripe tomato, Elincia regarded her friend quizzically. If Lucia noticed this, it didn't show for Lucia continued to speak.

 

“He's hard to predict,” Lucia went on. “He often seems so level headed and respectful but…I've heard tell that he once yelled at the Apostle. I had a hard time believing it.”

 

Elincia's eyes stung at the memory. She still remembered when the Greil Mercenaries arrived in Begnion after meeting Sanaki, the child-like Apostle. Sanaki had questioned her, seeking to confirm her identity as King Ramon's daughter. That had her worried, she didn't actually have any proof of her heritage, so she gave a somewhat fumbling explanation and hoped her truthfulness would show in her words. Ike had vouched for her, better than she had for herself, but his word was dismissed out of hand because of his low birth. Still, he persisted and Sanaki astonished them by suddenly bursting into laughter and telling them that Sephiran had already vouched for her.

 

The reason for the entire inquiry was, apparently, because the child-like Apostle was bored and craved entertainment.

 

It had all been so bewildering that Elincia hadn't known how to reply. She may have been at a loss for words but Ike wasn't. Quite the contrary, he went ballistic. Ike, she knew, had inherited a strong sense of decency towards others from his father; she'd heard him talking about it to Nasir back at Tor Garen.

 

`What was it he said?' she wondered. `Oh yes, now I remember! `If you treat others in good faith, they will follow you of their own volition.' And, he was right.'

 

Ike's strength of conviction, and his unwavering loyalty to his friends, had impressed her many times. And, though Nasir and Soren had chastised him for his outburst, Elincia had appreciated his speaking in defense of her and her honor.

 

That was a rare privilege for one who, officially, didn't exist.

 

She'd tried, unsuccessfully, to ease the weight of mortification that had settled on him after that. When she told him that she appreciated him vouching for her, he'd only chuckled and politely disagreed. Not long after they'd spoken, he withdrew to his Guest Chambers. Ike had spent the next few days training, planning, going on missions and, seemingly, avoiding her. Was it because her attempts to ease his embarrassment had wounded his pride? Had she been too forward when she requested that he call her by her name, as he'd unwittingly done during his outburst? Whatever it was, it got worse when Sanaki ordered him to receive the title of Lord.

 

Ike's face had darkened, his eyes had narrowed and his lips peeled away to expose a clenched jaw. The mask of rage that overtook Ike's face had scared her, not only because it seemed so unnatural for him but because she couldn't shake the feeling that it was meant for her. By the time they'd reached Tor Garen, Ike had seemed somewhere close to his old self but Elincia still couldn't shake the memory of Ike's enraged face.

 

Perhaps, if Ike did hate being a Lord THAT much, it was all the more reason to let him go.

 

“Now that I think about it,” Lucia continued, “I don't think I ever apologized to him.”

 

“For what?” Elincia asked, one eyebrow arching upward.

 

Lucia smiled wistfully and a small chuckle escaped her lips, as if she couldn't decide if she was amused or embarrassed about what she was about to say.

 

“Delbray Castle,” Lucia answered.

 

Lucia didn't say anymore, she didn't have to. Elincia remembered learning of Delbray, after the Crimean Liberation Army had defeated General Petrine and reentered Crimea, and she remembered the bell-clear joy of learning that Lucia and Geoffrey and Bastian were all still alive. And, she remembered how that joy had turned to terror when she learned that Delbray was besieged and Lucia ordered Ike to retreat.

 

Lucia had taken considerable umbrage when Ike flatly ignored her orders and went to Delbray's aid. Still, Elincia knew Lucia well enough to detect the relief she felt when Geoffrey had been rescued.

 

“That wasn't the first time Ike has surprised us,” Elincia pointed out.

 

“Yes,” Lucia agreed, “Janaff and Ilyana told me quite a few stories.”

 

`More than a few,' Elincia mused wistfully. `More than I could count.'

 

She'd meant it too; Ike had a history of letting ethics and sentimentality overpower his better judgment. The first she remembered the most clearly, as if it had been only yesterday instead of nearly three years ago. She had been traveling in disguise with the Greil Mercenaries as they made their way to Port Toha to reach Nasir's ship for their voyage to Begnion. Ranulf had acted as their guide, enshrouded in a heavy cloak to conceal his Laguz features.

 

King Ramon and Caineghis were allies, but this pact was not respected by the common citizenry.

 

And this terrible truth was made evident when Ranulf was unmasked purely by accident and found himself surrounded by a mob. Elincia remembered the horror, the revulsion that surged through her blood at the sight. She'd heard about such incidents, she had long been aware of the work her father and uncle had invested in trying to halt such occurrences. Seeing it, up close, left her pained as if some of the mob's blows had fallen upon her.

 

Ramon's vision, in the wake of his death, seemed to have evaporated like a terribly pleasant dream that gave way before the slings and arrows of the waking world.

 

Then, Ike intervened. The mob had, with chilling speed, turned their attention toward Ike, allowing Ranulf to slip away. Ike's actions had been chastised, even by Ranulf himself, since all the commotion he'd raised had blown their cover. Still, Elincia had regarded his actions with bewilderment.

 

A Beorc defending a Laguz, and a Mercenary acting in an altruist fashion for that matter, was unheard-of and Ike had done both in one go.

 

It happened again in Serenes Forest when Ike led the Greil Mercenaries against Duke Tanas' impressive Army to rescue an enraged Reyson, who didn't want their help. It happened yet again after the defense of Talrega, where the surge of water erupting from the opened floodgates had destroyed hundreds of homes and farms and wiped out the fields. Ike had decided to aid the dislocated Talregans, even though they'd declared they'd sooner eat dirt than accept help from Crimeans, and the others in the Army had reluctantly agreed.

 

Very reluctantly.

 

Many a time, Ike's actions were seemingly reckless. In fact, at least a few of them were probably reckless, period. Though Ike might seem impetuous and undisciplined, few doubted his commitment to his mission and none could question his loyalty to his friends.

 

Was it Ike's capacity for compassion or his generosity that had enthralled her? Or was it his strong sense of justice? Probably both and, whatever had changed in him she hoped that wasn't it.

 

“Oh, I don't doubt it,” Lucia spoke up, shaking Elincia out of her reminiscence.

 

Elincia turned to face Lucia, puzzlement written across her features. Lucia, seemingly oblivious to the scrutiny, chuckled softly.

 

“Sometime, I hope you'll tell me a few of your stories,” Lucia admitted, with the barest hint of a smirk. “You probably have the best ones.”

 

Lucia might have been talking about the time Elincia had spoken to Ike before battle, telling him to `Give them a sound thrashing,' which the two women had laughed long and hard over, but Elincia suspected otherwise. Something in Lucia's words, Elincia wasn't sure what, seemed to hint at an underlying meaning. Almost like…she wasn't sure what, the frost in her head from her preoccupation with Ike and her efforts to smother her impossible longings seemed to freeze away her thoughts and numb her senses.

 

“King Ramon probably would've enjoyed meeting him,” Lucia commented, a hint of nostalgia entering her voice.

 

Elincia didn't reply, she didn't have to. She suspected that Lucia already knew that she agreed. And, not just with the suggestion but with the sentimentality behind it. King Ramon had been like a second father to Lucia and Geoffrey and, since either could move about the realm more freely than her, Elincia suspected that both knew her father better than she did.

 

There had been a time when she'd regarded this fact with envy, but she eventually came to terms with it. The circumstances of her birth, and the concealment of her existence, left her in no position to be picky about how her early life was lived. Though she'd been isolated, with only a trusted few allowed access to the Royal Villa where she'd been raised, her childhood had been happy. Still, she couldn't help but wonder what her father, or her uncle, would say if she could speak to them. Maybe one of them could dispel the fog and frost of longing, dread and confusion in her head.

 

Her gaze turned back towards Ike, who was now shifting to relieve cramped muscles.

 

“They might've become good friends,” Lucia suggested, a hint of sadness entering her voice

 

Elincia was caught off guard by that comment. It made her think, contemplate, what that might have looked like. Her mind's eye worked to form an image of the two men that she loved dearly, one that she barely knew and the other she couldn't decipher. She tried to imagine King Ramon and Ike conversing, either over a meal or a spar or during a morning stroll, and the image perplexed her. At first glance, one would think that they had nothing in common. Ramon had been a Monarch, Ike was a Mercenary. Ramon had been a husband and a father, Ike was young and unattached. Ramon had been ambitious and visionary, Ike was a down-to-earth man but with a streak of sentimentality in him. And, of course, Ike was still alive while Ramon had died horribly.

 

Yet, these differences were more than outweighed by the connections she could see between them. Both were men of integrity. Both were men who had things, people and ideals, that they considered worth much more than their own lives. Ramon had died for his ideals and Ike had dared death countless times for his. Both believed it possible to overcome generations of hatred between the Beorc and Laguz and worked towards that seemingly impossible goal. Both had stood in defiance of Ashnard, even if only one of the two had done so and survived. And, Elincia would miss them both. Her father had been dead for nearly three years, had been murdered before they could truly be father and daughter, and Ike would likely part ways with her soon enough.

 

She tried to imagine what they'd say but found the image too painful to watch any longer. Her impossible desire, of Ike being persuaded to remain in her life, kept seeping into the image. She saw Ramon clap Ike on the shoulder, shake his hand and call him `son' and she heard him say the words `blessing' and `daughter.'

 

She mentally shattered the image like a pane of glass but knew her recollection of it would not be so easily purged from her mind.

 

“Perhaps,” she replied blandly. “I doubt it though, he hates Nobles. He isn't too fond of big cities either.”

 

“Really?” Lucia inquired, arching one eyebrow. “Then, why is he still here?”

 

“I…don't know,” Elincia admitted.

 

Her earlier mental wanderings about Ike's lingering in Melior made an unbidden return and the fog in her head thickened until it could be cut with a knife. She'd expected him to renounce his title, walk out of Melior and never come back the first chance he got. So, why hadn't he? Two years after the end of the War, he was still Lord Ike, he was still seeking out remnants of Ashnard's Army and he still came to Melior to do his share of the work rebuilding the Crimean capitol. Every day that he lingered, she'd asked herself why he did but she never came up with an answer.

 

Lucia was right, Ike was hard to predict.

 

She reflected that she should have gotten used to that long ago.

 

“Have you asked him?” Lucia inquired.

 

Elincia was silent but she began to tremble, she wasn't sure what from. Perhaps she was afraid that, by asking Ike what had changed, she'd end up pushing him away. Or, just as daunting, she'd find that it was Ike himself that had changed. Either prospect spread clammy tendrils across her mind and chilled her with dread.

 

“I guess not,” Lucia thought out loud.

 

Elincia tensed, knowing that Lucia would not leave it at that.

 

“If the question bothers you that much, then perhaps you should ask,” she suggested to the young Queen.

 

That was, Elincia knew, what she needed to hear. But, that didn't mean it was easy to hear. What would Ike say if she asked? And, for that matter, how would she ask? And, when?

 

She couldn't think about it, didn't want to, but she reminded herself that she had to.

 

“How have the people taken to him?” Elincia asked, eager to change the subject.

 

“You mean besides the Seneschal?” Lucia asked, cocking her head towards the aggravated official below.

 

Elincia watched as the Seneschal made, yet another, protestation about Ike's less-than-Lordly behavior. Ike, oblivious, continued to shovel rubble into carts, to shake hands with the city-folk, to join other workers in their tasks and showing no indication of donning a fresh shirt.

 

Both women knew that it was improper to find amusement in the Seneschal's frustration but they just couldn't help themselves.

 

“Yes,” Elincia replied, choking down an illicit giggle, “besides him.”

 

“Well,” Lucia began, “the common folk and the troops love him.”

 

Elincia took this news without a blink, in fact she already knew that. Lord Reginald Lockhart, who shared Ike's penchant for unabashed honesty, said it straight off.

 

`If it wasn't for the fact that I like Ike so blasted much, I'd be worried about him making the rest of us look bad,' Reginald had said.

 

Reginald's words, `I Like Ike,' had proven to be remarkably contagious.

 

“The children though,” Lucia continued, snickering, “they look at him like he's a wondertale hero.”

 

The two women shared a laugh, wondering how Ike would react if someone told him that. It also sparked a whiff of nostalgia, nostalgia for the days when she and Lucia were small children who'd read those same wondertales of heroes clashing with monsters or tyrants and fantasized about meeting their Prince Charming. Of course, those wondertales left out quite a bit.

 

The pain and the blood and the fear and the death of battle. The cold and the hunger and the exhaustion of hard travel in far off lands. The suffering and the guilt and the grief of seeing a friend or loved one fall in battle. The moral paradox of taking lives to save lives, and how the slain reappear as vengeful ghosts in the dreams of their destroyers. And, of course, the process of picking up the pieces afterward which was practically a War in its own right.

 

The War was no wondertale, though historians and poets would surely weave it into an epic that could pass as one. Ike was no wondertale hero, but none could doubt that he was a hero nonetheless. While Ike was certainly strong and brave and not unpleasant to look at, he was hardly the preposterous portrait of nonsensical perfection that a Prince Charming was.

 

Still, Elincia could picture a child, any number of them actually, idolizing Ike. And, knowing Ike, she could picture him trying to persuade the, very likely uncooperative, child in question that he didn't win the whole War single-handedly as everyone seemed to think.

 

“Humility has its drawbacks, I suppose,” Lucia quipped.

 

That was true, as well as another part of the puzzle that was Ike. His humility had been perplexing to her, not only because the words `Mercenary' and `Modesty' seemed so utterly mismatched, but because it seemed to cut both ways at once. Most found it endearing that he acknowledged and credited the work of his friends and comrades but some found it odd that he rarely did the same for himself. Some even found it frustrating. Even when Sanaki had praised his intellect, after Ike had deduced her plan to expose the illegal Laguz Slave Trading, Ike had waved it off and said that his friends did more than he in that regard.

 

Elincia disagreed, and she suspected that she wasn't alone in doing so.

 

“I suppose,” Elincia replied distractedly.

 

Elincia didn't seem to notice but Lucia had moved closer to her and had lowered her voice to a whisper.

 

“Still,” Lucia commented, a conspiratorial air entering her voice, “this talk about wondertales brings back some memories. Do you remember those talks we had, back when we were little, about who we'd give our first kisses to?”

 

Elincia remembered those talks very well. In fact, in a matter of speaking, those times were more recent than one would think. Carefree times when the world beyond the front gates of the Royal Villa was an enigma, the clues to which existed only in the various books inside the Villa and stories from the infrequent visitors. Those days, which had ended abruptly the day that the Daein invasion took Melior, were remembered much like one remembers their childhood.

 

Blissful, carefree, happy and, most of all, brief and unrecoverable.

 

The world beyond the Royal Villa was a harsh place, an unforgiving place, but there was much in it that was precious if one looked hard enough.

 

Her gaze wandered between the new camaraderie and burgeoning respect between the Beorc and Laguz laborers, the explosive joy of the families returning to their rebuilt homes and, in particular, Ike.

 

“Did Ike ever seem like the person you'd want to give your first kiss to?” Lucia asked, curiosity underlying her tone.

 

The image of the two kisses she and Ike had shared, the first being shy and tentative and the other being a blast of warmth from a wellspring of passion, flashed across her mind's eye and arrested her attention so much that she wasn't aware of speaking or of what she'd said until it was too late.

 

“Already did,” she replied, her voice thin and distant.

 

When she, belatedly, realized what she'd said, her blush returned full force and she prayed that her voice had been too soft for Lucia to hear.

 

(Lucia)

 

Lucia, her usually calm, placid features lighting up with mischievous curiosity, snapped her head in Elincia's direction. Needless to say, the sight of Elincia covering a furious blush was all she needed to see.

 

She ground her teeth together, so hard that her jaw ached in protest, to keep herself from laughing.

 

It didn't work.

 

After Lucia had managed to calm herself, and when she noticed the scowl Elincia had fixed on her, she regarded her Queen and longtime friend with polite curiosity.

 

“How did it happen?” she asked.

 

Elincia's embarrassment seemed to worsen and she suddenly found the masonry of the balcony easier to look at than Lucia's face.

 

“It was an accident,” she replied tonelessly. “I found him training, just before the battle of Nados Castle. He…he suddenly fell to his knees and I ran over. He was fine though, he was just worried.”

 

“About fighting the Black Knight?” Lucia asked.

 

Elincia nodded.

 

“We talked it over,” Elincia continued, a hint of nostalgia crossing her features. “He was…afraid. It seems awful to say about someone as brave as Ike, but I don't have another word for it. The Black Knight killed his father. Ike thought that, even with Ragnell, that he wasn't skilled enough to defeat the Black Knight. We spoke for a while, about the battles he'd won and, after that, he seemed to feel better.”

 

A heart to heart between Ike and Elincia? This was getting interesting.

 

“Go on,” Lucia persisted.

 

“Just as I stood up,” Elincia continued, that familiar blush returning, “I kissed him on the cheek. Then, the next thing I knew, he grabbed me by the shoulders and kissed me.”

 

Though Elincia didn't notice, Lucia had given her the barest hint of a smirk and a sliver of an approving nod.

 

“It was nothing though,” Elincia more whispered than said. “He thought he was going to die, it was just an impulse.”

 

To Lucia, this certainly sounded possible. Ike was an unmatched warrior and a remarkable leader, but he often struck her as one who acts more on instinct and intuition rather than logic or protocol. Still, she suspected that there was more to this than just that.

 

Ike was, as she herself had pointed out, a hard man to predict.

 

“Did he tell you that?” Lucia inquired.

 

“Well, no,” Elincia admitted. “I asked him after the second time, he said that it seemed like the right thing to do and that he wasn't sure he'd get another chance.”

 

Lucia's eyes, or at least the one that wasn't perpetually covered by her long coils of aqua hair, nearly popped out of her head when she heard this.

 

“`Second time?'” she repeated, with a concealed snicker.

 

Elincia gasped in realization, and mortification, clapping one hand over her eyes.

 

“And how'd the second one go?” Lucia asked, flashing a wicked grin.

 

After letting out a long sigh, that sounded somewhere between wistful and agitated, Elincia replied.

 

“It was just after he'd defeated the Black Knight,” Elincia began, “maybe just as the sun was going down. I went to his tent to check on him, to see if he was wounded.”

 

She added that explanation quickly, very quickly. As if she'd anticipated Lucia's suspicions that she'd gone to Ike's tent for other purposes. In fact, though Lucia would never say it aloud, she had a funny feeling that Elincia was being less than honest about that whole I-just-went-to-see-if-he-was-wounded story.

 

“We didn't speak that time,” Elincia admitted, prompting a raised eyebrow from Lucia. “Not at first, I mean. I came in and…well, I was struck by how much…how much better he looked. He always seemed preoccupied, grim and exhausted. But, that night he looked…relieved. No, that's not the right word. He looked…”

 

“Happy to see you?” Lucia suggested, somehow keeping a straight face.

 

Elincia shot her a withering glare.

 

“Well,” she admitted, her anger sinking, “he did seem happy. Perhaps defeating the Black Knight helped him to reconcile himself with Master Greil's death. He looked as though he was at peace with himself.”

 

A far away expression dawned on Elincia's face, as though she was savoring a pleasant memory. Very pleasant, Lucia suspected.

 

“And then he kissed you,” Lucia pointed out.

 

This time, Elincia didn't so much as blink.

 

“Yes,” she admitted. “It was…incredible.”

 

Silence fell between the two women as they thought that over. Lucia had her suspicions regarding Ike and Elincia, but this conversation had given her more than she'd anticipated. Finding out that Ike and Elincia had kissed had taken her by surprise, though perhaps it shouldn't have. Still, Lucia was confident that those `accidental' kisses weren't accidental at all.

 

Lucia didn't believe in accidents, much less ones that happen twice. In one day, no less.

 

“So,” Lucia began tentatively, “where do things stand? Between you and him, that is.”

 

Elincia's shoulders slumped and a thin sigh escaped her lips.

 

“There's nothing to say,” she replied. “He'll leave sooner or later and I won't keep him here against his will.”

 

“Which reminds me,” Lucia interjected, “why hasn't he left yet?”

 

Elincia didn't reply, her gaze found Ike again and she stared at him as if the answer to that question could be found inscribed upon his skin. The way she gazed at Ike, that look of anguished longing and pained resignation, told Lucia all she needed to know.

 

“He…means a lot to you, doesn't he?” Lucia asked.

 

“Yes,” Elincia whispered, so faintly that Lucia had trouble hearing her.

 

Again, silence fell between the two women. However, this time Elincia did not take long to summon her voice.

 

“I just…,” she began, her voice quavering. “I just wish to know the truth. I know that he wants to leave but I just don't understand why he hasn't.”

 

`Maybe he isn't going to?' Lucia silently mused.

 

She didn't dare say that aloud though; she knew she'd regret giving Elincia false hope if her supposition turned out to be wrong.

 

“Why not ask him?” Lucia asked.

 

For a long moment, Elincia was silent and Lucia could readily discern why. Elincia was afraid. She wasn't afraid that Ike would tell her he was going to leave, but rather that her asking would make him leave. That, one had to admit, was a possibility. But, not knowing was clearly weighing down upon her in leaden weights of dread.

 

“I…,” Elincia murmured, again in a near inaudible voice. “I don't really know. I suppose that I'm afraid. I won't keep him here against his will but I…I don't want him to leave.”

 

This got Lucia's attention. Elincia had always been demure, even after her Coronation, and the phrases `I want' or `I don't want' were exceptionally rare in her vocabulary. Sure, Elincia had said she wanted no one else to die when she learned of the siege of Delbray, she'd said she wanted to free Crimea and she'd said that she wanted to grow stronger.

 

This though, it was very different.

 

“Perhaps,” Lucia began tentatively, trying to sound as if she was unsurprised by Elincia's words, “the Festival would be the best time to ask. Perhaps you could request him as an escort and ask him in private?”

 

Elincia brought up a hand, her forefinger stroking her chin in contemplation. Lucia could tell that Elincia was thinking it over. Lucia's simple suggestion had given her much to consider. On the one hand, there was the chance that Ike would tell her that he was leaving right then and there and, on the other hand, he might tell her…something else. What that something else might be, neither woman could say, but there was still the faint hope that he'd say something unexpected that was for the better. And, doing and saying the unexpected was Ike's specialty. The only question was, when these two possibilities were weighed against one another in the young Queen's mind, which would win.

 

Elincia thought it over for a long time, at least Lucia believed so. She stood a respectful distance away, one hand clasping the wrist of her other arm behind her back. She was working to restrain her infamous nervous habit of twirling a lock of hair with one finger, lest it raise Elincia's suspicions.

 

By the time Elincia finally spoke, Lucia's hand was squeezing her wrist so hard that her whole forearm hurt.

 

“Alright,” Elincia answered, her voice soft but steady. “I'll take your suggestion.”

 

“Whew,” Lucia wheezed, relieved.

 

Then, she noticed Elincia was giving her an odd look.

 

“Would you like me to inform him?” she asked, thinking quickly.

 

Elincia shook her head.

 

“I'll handle it myself,” she informed her Courtier and friend, and then left.

 

Lucia lingered on the balcony, her face swept clean of emotion, until Elincia was safely out of sight. Once the Queen's footsteps receded out of hearing, Lucia snickered. Elincia, shy and demure Elincia, wanted to ask Ike in person? Up close? And, almost assuredly, while he was still shirtless?

 

`This should be interesting,' she inwardly mused.

 

***************************************************************** *******

 

Ranulf: You should see me without a shirt, I'm incredible.

 

Falchion1984: No comment. Anyhow, I hope that I presented the dilemma in a realistic fashion. And, hopefully, Ike's altruistic nature (whereas most Mercenaries would be highly opportunistic and pragmatic) as well as her misreading his reactions to the incidents in Begnion presents a likely source of confusion for Elincia. These misunderstandings, along with Ike long delay in telling her how he felt, will be a source of tension later on. One goal I have for this fic is to give Lucia a little more dimension than in the game. I rather liked her, but her role was dreadfully small and I hope that her relationship, as I present it, seems like the sort sisterly relationship I'm going for. A bit more candid, since they're away from scrutinizing eyes, but considerate to her obvious distress. Also, Geoffrey's getting over Elincia (or has he?) was taken from his Supports with Callil and Lucia's efforts to nudge Ike and Elincia together are an effort to clear the air as well as put to rest Geoffrey's hopeless infatuation, hence her convincing him to go to Gallia for the Officer Exchange Program. Though, the question of whether or not he'll see it in such a positive light remains. As you may recall, in `Divergence,' Ike experienced a conflict of loyalties when he realized he loved Elincia and believed in King Ramon's dream and, until receiving the scabbard, faced the questions about where his loyalties and destiny lay. Here, Elincia is experiencing a similar conflict which, on the side, I hope can provide her with more emotional dimension than the game did.

 

Mist: I'm bored.

 

Falchion1984: Shut up. Also, since somebody's going to ask me this sooner or later, I may as well say it: I haven't played Radiant Dawn and I'm not sure if I'm going to. Certain elements will come into play here and in other fics, such as Ike's new buffness and others to be determined at a later date, but I wasn't pleased with Intelligent Systems. I had a PoR savegame with all the A Supports for the couples I wanted and everybody maxed out through copious use of cheat codes, but the new Supports system screwed all the pairings I wanted.

 

Ranulf: Hey, no swearing! This is a T rated story.

 

Falchion1984: Sorry. I also wasn't happy with how they made Sephiran some sort of semi-villain immortal since I had a better role in mind for my story. And, they crapped up that plan too.

 

Mist: Hey!

 

Falchion1984: Sorry. Anyhow, this is why I intend to write FE9 fanfiction to form a sort of fan-sequel where Path of Radiance will get the hot s*%@ sequel it should've gotten.

 

Ranulf: That does it! *Jams a bar of soap into Falchion1984's mouth*

 

Falchion1984: *Gargles angrily*

 

Mist: Not until you've learned your lesson.

 

Falchion1984: *Begins jumping up and down angrily until the floor gives out from under him*

 

Ranulf: Well, that's what you get for going off your diet. Well, review and see you later.