Fic Excerpts: "When Mila Walked the Land"
Jun. 10th, 2011 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelI don’t give up on WIPs easily. Things may go on hiatus but are never discontinued, and I dust off and cannibalize one-shots months or even years later. So it killed a part of me to neglect a serious-business FE2/3/8 crossover after I’d written 12,000 words of it, even if I’d decided it had absolutely no target audience.
So, here are some selections from the story of the prince and princess of Magi Varl, who crash-land in a foreign realm with some striking similarities to their home. The amount of meta I generated for this that has leaked into my standard interpretation of 2, 3, and 8 is kind of jaw-dropping. Clearly, I spent waaaaay too much time on this piece.
Synopsis: the prince of Valencia travels to Archanea to marry its princess. Dark creatures spoil the party. Then things really get weird. Excerpts of each unpublished chapter follow.
I do not own Fire Emblem or any of its characters.
From Chapter 2 (Dark Creatures):
“You got a long road ahead of you with these people, yer highness,” said Rekkit as they retired for the night. “That emperor scares the hell outta me, and his daughter looks like more of the same, in a skirt.”
“Thanks, Rekkit.”
“Seriously, highness. Imagine kissing that hard little mouth of hers....”
“I’d keep those thoughts to myself, Rekkit. There may be spies surrounding these apartments.”
Rekkit’s level of trust in the Archaneans was low enough that he promptly shut up for the night. The following morning, Rudolf had an invitation to go riding with his fiancee and her father. Rekkit struggled with a series of yawns as he helped Rudolf don riding clothes.
“They get up early here,” said the hapless knight. “It’s like a whole nation of priests.”
“Good thing I studied under priests, then.” Rudolf had no problem being up before dawn, but his men-- Father Solan excepted-- would have some adjustment ahead of them.
-x-
Rudolf kept a check on his anger and dismay for several unpleasant hours, until he at last was alone with his fiancee and a pair of bodyguards
“It’s terrible the way people prostrate themselves before your father. Is that required?”
“It’s not even sanctioned,” replied Lara, her voice a trifle sharp. “It’s explicitly discouraged, but no one pays any attention. They do as they please.”
“It’s appalling,” Rudolf said. Perhaps he was pushing things, but he really did need to express his true reaction to what he’d seen that morning. His own mother was revered by the people of Valencia, but there was a difference between reverence and this level of debasement found in Archanea.
Lara’s mouth-- that hard little mouth so commented upon by Rekkit-- grew pale and tight, like a closed seashell.
“They all know that Father has the divine dragons in his debt. When the most powerful beings known depend on a man for their salvation... well, what are people going to think?”
Rudolf bit back on what would have been a stammering torrent about his mother and father and the Dark God and the Earth Goddess and his dead grandfather and how what he witnessed that morning was simply wrong.
“Is Father supposed to have people beaten or imprisoned when they throw themselves before him and call him the Son of Heaven?” She arched her dark brows at him, and whether intended or not, the effect was one of intimidation. Yet, after a moment, her shoulders slumped, and she continued in a softer tone of voice. “Besides, the sort of behavior you witnessed this morning will only make it more difficult for me one day. I’m not the people’s savior. I’m not the dragonslayer. I haven’t done anything yet. My father was already a legend at the age I am now.”
At this, Rudolf could give her a full measure of sympathy. It wasn’t lost on him that, at the precise age he now was, his father marched into the darkness and brought down a god.
-x-
“There was another, stranger creature. It didn’t walk upon the ground, but instead floated in the air as a jellyfish does through water.” Piers looked slightly pale, as though the memory alone made him sick. “It took the form of a massive eye, trailing a bundle of bloody fibers in its wake. It was capable of blinking, Your Majesty.”
It sounded like something dreamed up by drunks, and Lara wondered if these guards weren’t telling strange tales to cover up some sort of misbehavior. Yet her father kept questioning the guard to draw out more improbable details, and Lara had to admit that Piers responded as though he, at least, believed every word to cross his lips.
“You say ‘massive,’ but what were the dimensions of this... eyeball?”
“The eye was larger than a man’s head, Your Majesty. All told, it was more than five feet in length.”
Rudolf flinched, and Lara turned in concern to her fiance.
“Biggle,” he muttered. Lara had no idea what that meant. Neither, apparently, did her father, who frowned as though Rudolf had uttered some Valencian curse. But Catria’s face showed a flash of understanding-- understanding, and the relief of an unknown threat resolving into a known one.
“Bigle,” she said. “A creature of the Dark God Doma. I have seen them in Valencia.”
Lara saw how Chancellor Cain’s eyes went to Rudolf; “suspicion” was perhaps too strong a word, but the look was certainly probing. Lara’s father, too, glanced sidelong at Rudolf as he asked the next question.
“There is no possibility that the presence of Doma-worshippers upon our soil has invited these creatures into our land?”
“No, sire,” Rudolf said without hesitation. “The creatures of Doma vanished with my parents’ victory. There are no Bigles stalking Valencia.”
“Up to recently, there were none in Archanea,” was the reply. “We should dispatch a messenger to Valencia immediately to make sure nothing is amiss in your land. As to the situation in Archanea-- what information do we have on these Bigles?”
Chapter 3: The Accursed Tower
It was a girl near to her own age. Her skin was pink and taut and unmarred, her long hair was shining, and overall she seemed very much human and quite alive. Once Lara had determined that this was not another of the undead, she took a moment to study the girl’s clothing-- a short red-and-white tunic like that of a pegasus rider, red boots that came up past the knee, and fine jewels that included ear-rings and a bracelet. She also carried a rapier similar in design to Lara’s own. Lara was afraid the girl might have injured herself on her own weapon, but the stranger sat up and looked wildly around her.
“Seth? Seth!” the girl cried out. “Tana!”
“Are you all right, my lady?” asked Rudolf.
The girl simply stared at him, her large eyes growing larger still as she regarded him with what appeared to be shock. Rudolf repeated the question, and the girl shook her head at him.
Chapter Four: Maiden of Magi Varl
“You seem so incurious about the mysteries of the Valencian gods... it surprises me, Marth.”
“I am quite familiar with the mysteries of Doma and Mila, Merric-- more so, it appears, than the priests who serve them.”
“Do tell.”
“‘And Lord Medeus, as a sign of his fair will toward mankind, sent his two children to the western land, to govern the humans there with justice and mercy, to cultivate them and lead them into the new era.’”
[missing text]
“Valencia, it seems, is a relic of the age before Medeus turned his back upon humanity. His children may never have learned of their father’s apostasy, or perhaps they so enjoyed being worshiped as gods by the Valencians that they ignored their father’s will.”
“Then they are dragons?”
“Earth Dragons. Sleeping dragons, at the present. I can’t say if the Shield of Seals has any power over them.”
[missing text]
“I see no reason to share this news with our Valencian friends.”
“But to learn that their gods are dragons, that their world is not entirely as it seems-- Marth, it matters.”
“It matters very little. Merric, you’re a man for whom the whys and hows of the world are crucial. To most men, it matters only that the world does function in a particular way, not why it should function or who set it all in motion. Likewise, I personally don’t care if I ever learn why this girl from Magi Varl has dropped into my empire. As long as she and these creatures all go back where they belong, I will be quite content with a solution.”
Chapter 5: This Sacred Heart
“Up to now, we’ve been focused on a connection with Lord Doma. Yet Eirika referred to a Demon King. Could this be the Dark Demon King of our acquaintance?” Catria knew that Marth would recognize one of the many titles used by the sorcerer Gharnef.
“No. I don’t believe that in the slightest.”
“You are so certain? Even with the role of Thabes in this mess?”
“Most certain. These creatures-- mindless revenants, beasts without human sentience-- are not the tools Gharnef would use.” He began to play with a strand of her hair as he mulled over the problem. “Gharnef took his pleasure in perverting the nature of humanity, in sowing discord between brother and sister, between parent and child. To take a person’s good intentions and twist them to his own ends... that was as sweet in itself as was the anticipation of triumph.”
“Ah. You convince me, truly, but it is a pity. Gharnef was noxious, but at least we know how to deal with him.”
“I would gladly see him dead a third time, and a fourth, and a fifth.”
Chapter Six: Two Halves of One Whole
“They a wild man fell through a hole in the sky at Khadein. He speaks no language known to us and is unspeakably violent. He killed one of our mages and critically wounded another before he was overpowered.”
“He is in custody?”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“Have him brought to me, as I wish to see this wild man.”
[scene break]
Lara imagined a great beast of a man from the herald’s description of the damage this stranger had caused. He was tall, taller than the guards escorting him, but he was quite slender without seeming at all frail. He walked with his head high, and glanced around the room with flashing eyes as he was brought forward. Lara could not help but notice how young he was, and how handsome. She also could not fail to see a resemblance between this prisoner and their other visitor from parts unknown.
Eirika was already on her feet. Her face had gone pale, and both hands were pressed to her chest in an unmistakable gesture of anguish.
“Ephraim!”
The prisoner turned his head toward Eirika. He mouthed her name silently, and a heartbeat later he surged forward, nearly breaking free of his bonds. Lara watched in horror as the guards jerked their prisoner back sharply. The young man bellowed in obvious rage, and Eirika in turn screamed as more guards stepped forward, their lance-heads aimed at the prisoner’s vitals.
“Enough!”
The sovereign of all Archanea rarely needed to raise his voice. On the occasions when he did, every man and woman in the room remembered that this was a man whose sword had dipped in the blood of kings and dragons alike. After a chilling pause, the emperor spoke in a lowered voice that was still rigidly stern.
“Eirika, it appears you recognize our ‘wild man.’ Please explain him for us.”
Lara thought her father always used too many words when speaking to Eirika. He could not, or would not, resort to broken sentences to make himself clearly understood. Eirika, flustered, made small frantic gestures with her hands until she blurted out the correct words.
“Brother. My brother.”
Chapter Seven: The Sacred Stones of Magi Varl
The prince of Renais brought with him more questions than answers. He made little attempt to learn the common tongue of Archanea, and relied on his sister to translate. What information they did get out of him wasn’t especially helpful; Ephraim, it seemed, had demands for his hosts, most of which involved being sent back to Magi Varl.
“He says... time has been... lost? Time is lost, and our battles are....” Eirika shook her head as the words eluded her. “Our battles are trouble. Give us gold and weapons to pay back.”
At first, Lara thought that Ephraim asked for a loan that he intended to repay at some later date. She realized, after a moment’s consideration, that the prince was actually demanding aid in compensation for his lost time and inconvenience. Lara drew in a tense breath and looked to her father, who also had grasped the meaning inside Eirika’s words.
“Tell your brother that it is wise for those who land on another’s doorstep empty-handed and in need of charity to show some gratitude.”
He stood without warning, and all around the table got hastily to their feet-- all, that is, except the Renais twins. Eirika’s lips moved soundlessly, and she seemed to be trying to process what the emperor had said. When Eirika stood at last, she tugged at her brother’s hand to get him to comply with etiquette. Ephraim remained seated, his light eyes looked strangely fiery for all that they were the color of water.
-x-
Tiki, who despite years of lessons hadn’t entirely mastered court etiquette, stared right back. Finally Ephraim broke off the staring match. He pointed to Tiki, and said a word that was unmistakable.
Manakete.
“Tiki, this is the princess Eirika of Renais and her brother Ephraim. They are staying with us for a time. Eirika, Ephraim, this is Tiki, princess of the dragonkin. There is no need to be afraid, as she is as a sister to me.”
Eirika quickly translated the Emperor’s words for her brother’s benefit; Ephraim settled back in his chair, a strained expression on his handsome face. Lara assumed that he feared manaketes, a common enough reaction, though it seemed strange that Ephraim would fear little Tiki when Eirika did not. Perhaps “loathing” was a more appropriate word? And yet...
Chapter Eight: The Incarnation of Mila
“My father wasn’t born the heir to an empire. He conquered it, kingdom by kingdom.” It was something of a simplification, but her father had very definitely conquered the lands of Archanea, even if some of the power had been surrendered to him voluntarily by the previous ruling houses. Simplification or not, this statement of hers seemed to interest Ephraim a great deal; he looked at her more keenly than before.
How old?
She held up her hands to show all ten fingers, closed the hands momentarily and showed her fingers again.
Twenty?
Lara nodded. Ephraim appeared to think this over for a moment, then he offered a surprisingly cheeky smile and said something else that she understood clearly without knowing the literal words.
Not bad.
Chapter Nine: The Emblem of Fire
Merric spent the better part of a morning with young Lord Rudolf discussing the boy’s sudden and irrational conviction that Eirika of Renais was the embodiment of the Valencian Earth Goddess. Having failed to dissuade Rudolf from this belief, Merric spent his afternoon applying himself to the equally impossible task of convincing Marth that the twins of Renais were not harbingers of doom.
“I’m willing to take the existence of another world with striking similarities to our own. I’ll accept the existence of a alternate system of magic that still somehow features Aura and Excalibur as we know them. I’m even willing to believe in the existence of a separate race of manaketes. Two Fire Emblems is a coincidence too far.”
“The Emblem referred to by Ephraim sounds nothing like the Shield of Seals. He spoke of a stone that was somehow divided into two, one light and one dark--”
“He spoke overall of five stones. Sound familiar?”
“Yes. There has been from the outset the possibility that these Sacred Stones of Magi Varl are in some sense connected to the five spheres on the Shield.”
“We’re overlooking the obvious, Merric.” Marth drummed his fingers on the tabletop in a rare display of outright agitation. “We’ve been thinking of this Magi Varl as some world entirely separate from our own-- as you put it, a reflection. Suppose instead that their world is our own. Quite possibly, our future.”
-x-
“Merric, what weapon do we already have that is inherently light-based?”
Merric wasn’t playing stupid. He didn’t give the answer at first because he didn’t want to acknowledge the answer, and he didn’t like where Marth was so obviously going with this argument.
“No,” he said at last. “Falchion is not a staff. It’s not even a real sword. Marth, that’s the transfigured fang of a dragon.”
“I'm not asking if you like the idea, Merric. I’m asking if it will be effective.”
“Yes. The blade of Falchion could theoretically act as a channel in the manner of a staff. That’s what it already does when fully functional. But
Falchion isn’t using any conventional light or anima spells; it’s tied to the user’s soul.... Marth, you have to be holding Falchion to activate its powers. I can’t bombard you with Starlight.”
“You’re dodging the question, Merric.” Marth’s voice was almost playful, as though they were still boys talking philosophical nonsense late into the night, but his eyes were coldly intense. “Will it work?”
“It would work,” Merric whispered. “Theoretically, it would work. In actual practice... dear gods, I don’t know. There is so much about the dragonkin we just don’t understand.”
[missing text]
“Marth, not long ago you criticized young Ephraim for launching an attack with a four-man squadron. This idea is worse.”
“Perhaps I’ve come to understand the boy a little better.” Marth’s expression still bordered on icy. “I’ll give you and Linde a fortnight to come up with an alternative.”
Chapter Ten: Light Breaks
“I might-- oh, no. Oh, dear gods.” It was meaningless babble, but her mind and her tongue were working against one another. “This is a dragon? I had no idea....”
This is what I was born to do? Kill dragons? This is my duty to Archanea?
“Medeus was larger,” her father said, sounding almost pensive. “That’s no Earth Dragon. More like a Divine Dragon gone to the bad.”
It looked exactly like the partially rotted animated corpse of a divine dragon-- darkened, shriveled, bones protruding through scales, both wings tattered and marred by holes. Its red eyes showed none of Tiki’s lively intelligence.
-x-
The pegasus refused to step through the gate, so the knight dismounted and ran to the border between Archanea and Magi Varl. As she tried to cross over, something prevented her, and she wavered like an apparition. Lara saw her red-and-white uniform, her lance and her swirl of long dark hair....
“Mother?”
Reasons for neglecting this included 1) the joys of writing two OCs and 2) a triple dose of no1curr on account of the subject matter. For something that'd be close to 20K words in the end, complete lack of audience appeal was something of a buzzkill. But for those tired of crazy!Marth, he was cold sane and 100% competent in this one. And also was not married to Caeda.
So, here are some selections from the story of the prince and princess of Magi Varl, who crash-land in a foreign realm with some striking similarities to their home. The amount of meta I generated for this that has leaked into my standard interpretation of 2, 3, and 8 is kind of jaw-dropping. Clearly, I spent waaaaay too much time on this piece.
Synopsis: the prince of Valencia travels to Archanea to marry its princess. Dark creatures spoil the party. Then things really get weird. Excerpts of each unpublished chapter follow.
I do not own Fire Emblem or any of its characters.
From Chapter 2 (Dark Creatures):
“You got a long road ahead of you with these people, yer highness,” said Rekkit as they retired for the night. “That emperor scares the hell outta me, and his daughter looks like more of the same, in a skirt.”
“Thanks, Rekkit.”
“Seriously, highness. Imagine kissing that hard little mouth of hers....”
“I’d keep those thoughts to myself, Rekkit. There may be spies surrounding these apartments.”
Rekkit’s level of trust in the Archaneans was low enough that he promptly shut up for the night. The following morning, Rudolf had an invitation to go riding with his fiancee and her father. Rekkit struggled with a series of yawns as he helped Rudolf don riding clothes.
“They get up early here,” said the hapless knight. “It’s like a whole nation of priests.”
“Good thing I studied under priests, then.” Rudolf had no problem being up before dawn, but his men-- Father Solan excepted-- would have some adjustment ahead of them.
-x-
Rudolf kept a check on his anger and dismay for several unpleasant hours, until he at last was alone with his fiancee and a pair of bodyguards
“It’s terrible the way people prostrate themselves before your father. Is that required?”
“It’s not even sanctioned,” replied Lara, her voice a trifle sharp. “It’s explicitly discouraged, but no one pays any attention. They do as they please.”
“It’s appalling,” Rudolf said. Perhaps he was pushing things, but he really did need to express his true reaction to what he’d seen that morning. His own mother was revered by the people of Valencia, but there was a difference between reverence and this level of debasement found in Archanea.
Lara’s mouth-- that hard little mouth so commented upon by Rekkit-- grew pale and tight, like a closed seashell.
“They all know that Father has the divine dragons in his debt. When the most powerful beings known depend on a man for their salvation... well, what are people going to think?”
Rudolf bit back on what would have been a stammering torrent about his mother and father and the Dark God and the Earth Goddess and his dead grandfather and how what he witnessed that morning was simply wrong.
“Is Father supposed to have people beaten or imprisoned when they throw themselves before him and call him the Son of Heaven?” She arched her dark brows at him, and whether intended or not, the effect was one of intimidation. Yet, after a moment, her shoulders slumped, and she continued in a softer tone of voice. “Besides, the sort of behavior you witnessed this morning will only make it more difficult for me one day. I’m not the people’s savior. I’m not the dragonslayer. I haven’t done anything yet. My father was already a legend at the age I am now.”
At this, Rudolf could give her a full measure of sympathy. It wasn’t lost on him that, at the precise age he now was, his father marched into the darkness and brought down a god.
-x-
“There was another, stranger creature. It didn’t walk upon the ground, but instead floated in the air as a jellyfish does through water.” Piers looked slightly pale, as though the memory alone made him sick. “It took the form of a massive eye, trailing a bundle of bloody fibers in its wake. It was capable of blinking, Your Majesty.”
It sounded like something dreamed up by drunks, and Lara wondered if these guards weren’t telling strange tales to cover up some sort of misbehavior. Yet her father kept questioning the guard to draw out more improbable details, and Lara had to admit that Piers responded as though he, at least, believed every word to cross his lips.
“You say ‘massive,’ but what were the dimensions of this... eyeball?”
“The eye was larger than a man’s head, Your Majesty. All told, it was more than five feet in length.”
Rudolf flinched, and Lara turned in concern to her fiance.
“Biggle,” he muttered. Lara had no idea what that meant. Neither, apparently, did her father, who frowned as though Rudolf had uttered some Valencian curse. But Catria’s face showed a flash of understanding-- understanding, and the relief of an unknown threat resolving into a known one.
“Bigle,” she said. “A creature of the Dark God Doma. I have seen them in Valencia.”
Lara saw how Chancellor Cain’s eyes went to Rudolf; “suspicion” was perhaps too strong a word, but the look was certainly probing. Lara’s father, too, glanced sidelong at Rudolf as he asked the next question.
“There is no possibility that the presence of Doma-worshippers upon our soil has invited these creatures into our land?”
“No, sire,” Rudolf said without hesitation. “The creatures of Doma vanished with my parents’ victory. There are no Bigles stalking Valencia.”
“Up to recently, there were none in Archanea,” was the reply. “We should dispatch a messenger to Valencia immediately to make sure nothing is amiss in your land. As to the situation in Archanea-- what information do we have on these Bigles?”
Chapter 3: The Accursed Tower
It was a girl near to her own age. Her skin was pink and taut and unmarred, her long hair was shining, and overall she seemed very much human and quite alive. Once Lara had determined that this was not another of the undead, she took a moment to study the girl’s clothing-- a short red-and-white tunic like that of a pegasus rider, red boots that came up past the knee, and fine jewels that included ear-rings and a bracelet. She also carried a rapier similar in design to Lara’s own. Lara was afraid the girl might have injured herself on her own weapon, but the stranger sat up and looked wildly around her.
“Seth? Seth!” the girl cried out. “Tana!”
“Are you all right, my lady?” asked Rudolf.
The girl simply stared at him, her large eyes growing larger still as she regarded him with what appeared to be shock. Rudolf repeated the question, and the girl shook her head at him.
Chapter Four: Maiden of Magi Varl
“You seem so incurious about the mysteries of the Valencian gods... it surprises me, Marth.”
“I am quite familiar with the mysteries of Doma and Mila, Merric-- more so, it appears, than the priests who serve them.”
“Do tell.”
“‘And Lord Medeus, as a sign of his fair will toward mankind, sent his two children to the western land, to govern the humans there with justice and mercy, to cultivate them and lead them into the new era.’”
[missing text]
“Valencia, it seems, is a relic of the age before Medeus turned his back upon humanity. His children may never have learned of their father’s apostasy, or perhaps they so enjoyed being worshiped as gods by the Valencians that they ignored their father’s will.”
“Then they are dragons?”
“Earth Dragons. Sleeping dragons, at the present. I can’t say if the Shield of Seals has any power over them.”
[missing text]
“I see no reason to share this news with our Valencian friends.”
“But to learn that their gods are dragons, that their world is not entirely as it seems-- Marth, it matters.”
“It matters very little. Merric, you’re a man for whom the whys and hows of the world are crucial. To most men, it matters only that the world does function in a particular way, not why it should function or who set it all in motion. Likewise, I personally don’t care if I ever learn why this girl from Magi Varl has dropped into my empire. As long as she and these creatures all go back where they belong, I will be quite content with a solution.”
Chapter 5: This Sacred Heart
“Up to now, we’ve been focused on a connection with Lord Doma. Yet Eirika referred to a Demon King. Could this be the Dark Demon King of our acquaintance?” Catria knew that Marth would recognize one of the many titles used by the sorcerer Gharnef.
“No. I don’t believe that in the slightest.”
“You are so certain? Even with the role of Thabes in this mess?”
“Most certain. These creatures-- mindless revenants, beasts without human sentience-- are not the tools Gharnef would use.” He began to play with a strand of her hair as he mulled over the problem. “Gharnef took his pleasure in perverting the nature of humanity, in sowing discord between brother and sister, between parent and child. To take a person’s good intentions and twist them to his own ends... that was as sweet in itself as was the anticipation of triumph.”
“Ah. You convince me, truly, but it is a pity. Gharnef was noxious, but at least we know how to deal with him.”
“I would gladly see him dead a third time, and a fourth, and a fifth.”
Chapter Six: Two Halves of One Whole
“They a wild man fell through a hole in the sky at Khadein. He speaks no language known to us and is unspeakably violent. He killed one of our mages and critically wounded another before he was overpowered.”
“He is in custody?”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“Have him brought to me, as I wish to see this wild man.”
[scene break]
Lara imagined a great beast of a man from the herald’s description of the damage this stranger had caused. He was tall, taller than the guards escorting him, but he was quite slender without seeming at all frail. He walked with his head high, and glanced around the room with flashing eyes as he was brought forward. Lara could not help but notice how young he was, and how handsome. She also could not fail to see a resemblance between this prisoner and their other visitor from parts unknown.
Eirika was already on her feet. Her face had gone pale, and both hands were pressed to her chest in an unmistakable gesture of anguish.
“Ephraim!”
The prisoner turned his head toward Eirika. He mouthed her name silently, and a heartbeat later he surged forward, nearly breaking free of his bonds. Lara watched in horror as the guards jerked their prisoner back sharply. The young man bellowed in obvious rage, and Eirika in turn screamed as more guards stepped forward, their lance-heads aimed at the prisoner’s vitals.
“Enough!”
The sovereign of all Archanea rarely needed to raise his voice. On the occasions when he did, every man and woman in the room remembered that this was a man whose sword had dipped in the blood of kings and dragons alike. After a chilling pause, the emperor spoke in a lowered voice that was still rigidly stern.
“Eirika, it appears you recognize our ‘wild man.’ Please explain him for us.”
Lara thought her father always used too many words when speaking to Eirika. He could not, or would not, resort to broken sentences to make himself clearly understood. Eirika, flustered, made small frantic gestures with her hands until she blurted out the correct words.
“Brother. My brother.”
Chapter Seven: The Sacred Stones of Magi Varl
The prince of Renais brought with him more questions than answers. He made little attempt to learn the common tongue of Archanea, and relied on his sister to translate. What information they did get out of him wasn’t especially helpful; Ephraim, it seemed, had demands for his hosts, most of which involved being sent back to Magi Varl.
“He says... time has been... lost? Time is lost, and our battles are....” Eirika shook her head as the words eluded her. “Our battles are trouble. Give us gold and weapons to pay back.”
At first, Lara thought that Ephraim asked for a loan that he intended to repay at some later date. She realized, after a moment’s consideration, that the prince was actually demanding aid in compensation for his lost time and inconvenience. Lara drew in a tense breath and looked to her father, who also had grasped the meaning inside Eirika’s words.
“Tell your brother that it is wise for those who land on another’s doorstep empty-handed and in need of charity to show some gratitude.”
He stood without warning, and all around the table got hastily to their feet-- all, that is, except the Renais twins. Eirika’s lips moved soundlessly, and she seemed to be trying to process what the emperor had said. When Eirika stood at last, she tugged at her brother’s hand to get him to comply with etiquette. Ephraim remained seated, his light eyes looked strangely fiery for all that they were the color of water.
-x-
Tiki, who despite years of lessons hadn’t entirely mastered court etiquette, stared right back. Finally Ephraim broke off the staring match. He pointed to Tiki, and said a word that was unmistakable.
Manakete.
“Tiki, this is the princess Eirika of Renais and her brother Ephraim. They are staying with us for a time. Eirika, Ephraim, this is Tiki, princess of the dragonkin. There is no need to be afraid, as she is as a sister to me.”
Eirika quickly translated the Emperor’s words for her brother’s benefit; Ephraim settled back in his chair, a strained expression on his handsome face. Lara assumed that he feared manaketes, a common enough reaction, though it seemed strange that Ephraim would fear little Tiki when Eirika did not. Perhaps “loathing” was a more appropriate word? And yet...
Chapter Eight: The Incarnation of Mila
“My father wasn’t born the heir to an empire. He conquered it, kingdom by kingdom.” It was something of a simplification, but her father had very definitely conquered the lands of Archanea, even if some of the power had been surrendered to him voluntarily by the previous ruling houses. Simplification or not, this statement of hers seemed to interest Ephraim a great deal; he looked at her more keenly than before.
How old?
She held up her hands to show all ten fingers, closed the hands momentarily and showed her fingers again.
Twenty?
Lara nodded. Ephraim appeared to think this over for a moment, then he offered a surprisingly cheeky smile and said something else that she understood clearly without knowing the literal words.
Not bad.
Chapter Nine: The Emblem of Fire
Merric spent the better part of a morning with young Lord Rudolf discussing the boy’s sudden and irrational conviction that Eirika of Renais was the embodiment of the Valencian Earth Goddess. Having failed to dissuade Rudolf from this belief, Merric spent his afternoon applying himself to the equally impossible task of convincing Marth that the twins of Renais were not harbingers of doom.
“I’m willing to take the existence of another world with striking similarities to our own. I’ll accept the existence of a alternate system of magic that still somehow features Aura and Excalibur as we know them. I’m even willing to believe in the existence of a separate race of manaketes. Two Fire Emblems is a coincidence too far.”
“The Emblem referred to by Ephraim sounds nothing like the Shield of Seals. He spoke of a stone that was somehow divided into two, one light and one dark--”
“He spoke overall of five stones. Sound familiar?”
“Yes. There has been from the outset the possibility that these Sacred Stones of Magi Varl are in some sense connected to the five spheres on the Shield.”
“We’re overlooking the obvious, Merric.” Marth drummed his fingers on the tabletop in a rare display of outright agitation. “We’ve been thinking of this Magi Varl as some world entirely separate from our own-- as you put it, a reflection. Suppose instead that their world is our own. Quite possibly, our future.”
-x-
“Merric, what weapon do we already have that is inherently light-based?”
Merric wasn’t playing stupid. He didn’t give the answer at first because he didn’t want to acknowledge the answer, and he didn’t like where Marth was so obviously going with this argument.
“No,” he said at last. “Falchion is not a staff. It’s not even a real sword. Marth, that’s the transfigured fang of a dragon.”
“I'm not asking if you like the idea, Merric. I’m asking if it will be effective.”
“Yes. The blade of Falchion could theoretically act as a channel in the manner of a staff. That’s what it already does when fully functional. But
Falchion isn’t using any conventional light or anima spells; it’s tied to the user’s soul.... Marth, you have to be holding Falchion to activate its powers. I can’t bombard you with Starlight.”
“You’re dodging the question, Merric.” Marth’s voice was almost playful, as though they were still boys talking philosophical nonsense late into the night, but his eyes were coldly intense. “Will it work?”
“It would work,” Merric whispered. “Theoretically, it would work. In actual practice... dear gods, I don’t know. There is so much about the dragonkin we just don’t understand.”
[missing text]
“Marth, not long ago you criticized young Ephraim for launching an attack with a four-man squadron. This idea is worse.”
“Perhaps I’ve come to understand the boy a little better.” Marth’s expression still bordered on icy. “I’ll give you and Linde a fortnight to come up with an alternative.”
Chapter Ten: Light Breaks
“I might-- oh, no. Oh, dear gods.” It was meaningless babble, but her mind and her tongue were working against one another. “This is a dragon? I had no idea....”
This is what I was born to do? Kill dragons? This is my duty to Archanea?
“Medeus was larger,” her father said, sounding almost pensive. “That’s no Earth Dragon. More like a Divine Dragon gone to the bad.”
It looked exactly like the partially rotted animated corpse of a divine dragon-- darkened, shriveled, bones protruding through scales, both wings tattered and marred by holes. Its red eyes showed none of Tiki’s lively intelligence.
-x-
The pegasus refused to step through the gate, so the knight dismounted and ran to the border between Archanea and Magi Varl. As she tried to cross over, something prevented her, and she wavered like an apparition. Lara saw her red-and-white uniform, her lance and her swirl of long dark hair....
“Mother?”
Reasons for neglecting this included 1) the joys of writing two OCs and 2) a triple dose of no1curr on account of the subject matter. For something that'd be close to 20K words in the end, complete lack of audience appeal was something of a buzzkill. But for those tired of crazy!Marth, he was cold sane and 100% competent in this one. And also was not married to Caeda.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2011-06-10 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 09:37 pm (UTC)Thank you very much. :)
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Date: 2011-06-10 07:27 pm (UTC)And I will say that it's nice to read a more competent, together Marth. For the most part, I can't bring myself to fully subscribe to the idea of crazy!Marth (That's not saying that I don't think that he has his own issues because I think that he does. I just tend to err on the side of not nuts when I envision him myself. :P).
I do hope that you decide to continue this one day, but I understand if you opt to work on other stuff.
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Date: 2011-06-10 09:43 pm (UTC)And I will say that it's nice to read a more competent, together Marth
Dear gods, yes. I like my pre-FE12 conception of Marth so much better. Even if he does have a "damn kids get off my lawn" attitude in most of this.
I think I might finish it just to up the ratio of competent!Marth stories.
Thanks for the encouragement. :)
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Date: 2011-06-12 04:23 am (UTC)“He spoke overall of five stones. Sound familiar?”
“Yes. There has been from the outset the possibility that these Sacred Stones of Magi Varl are in some sense connected to the five spheres on the Shield.”
“We’re overlooking the obvious, Merric.” Marth drummed his fingers on the tabletop in a rare display of outright agitation. “We’ve been thinking of this Magi Varl as some world entirely separate from our own-- as you put it, a reflection. Suppose instead that their world is our own. Quite possibly, our future.”
That was my favorite part.
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Date: 2011-06-12 04:39 am (UTC)Actually, spurred on by the support from the commenters above, I've posted chapters two and three at ffnet. :D