Fire Emblem 7 - Lyn's Tale - Chapter 3
Lyn's Tale (Fire Emblem 7) - Chapter Three
Genre: Humor/Drama
Word Count: ~2000
PG-13 for graphic violence
Prologue - Chapter One - Chapter Two
The sunrise found me short of sleep. Although my patience was plenty, I felt my energy spent on better things than trivial things like kindness toward my co-travelers. I imagined that the Lady Lyndis of their minds might as well be weak of resolve, anyway, and so I allowed myself a few unseemingly remarks.
“I thought the Knights of Caelin above rousing women at night,” I sniffed with much indignation. “However will I be beautiful for you if I cannot get my sleep?”
“Milady, you would be just as beautiful with no sleep at all,” Sain exclaimed. I wasn't sure what to make of that.
In any event, Mark suggested to me that we take a brief detour. “It's important,” he said.
“Why need we visit this place, Mark?” I inquired.
“It's very important.”
So along the mountain range separating Sacae and Bern, we took a winding path that might have looked as if it were leading right down into the underworld. We started along a mountain path, but violently and suddenly the ground turned gray, the trees barren, and the sky dusky amber. When pressed, Mark would say only, it's important, or some variant of that.
The Mani Katti trembled in its sheath. I clamped a hand over its hilt to keep it from clattering. I knew not what this place was, but as hunter's instinct, the noise unnerved me.
At last we reached a cave, its opening like the wide jaws of a yawning feline, with rock formations of unlikely proportions. Mark turned and said to me (not “it's important”, to my surprise): “After you.”
“Mark, where have you led us?”
He turned around and observed the interior of the cave, stroking his mysterious facial hair. “There was a people here, a long time ago. An ancient people with a clear understanding of magic - deeper than any scholar today now knows.”
I should have known that I'd replaced the useless but harmless urchin with a schemer with his own agenda.
Mark's eyes flickered to Kent and Sain, and then back to me. “Milady, it is a secret I only trust you to know. Come with me.”
An idea began to surface in my mind. I nodded in my assent, looking as dumbfounded as I could, throwing longing glances back at the knights as I told them to wait like dogs. And like dogs they sat at the cave's entrance with a whimper, watching me and Mark work our way through the cave's teeth.
“Legend has it that the ancients left their knowledge encased in a single crystal in the center of the world.” With this he again lapsed into thoughtful silence. He had led us to the underworld, indeed. Although the ground seemed flat, all at once I was aware that we were descending. The light behind us was rapidly fading, and I worried that we might lose our footing. Mark seemed to as well, turning to me and saying, “Well? Draw your blade.”
I let the trembling Mani Katti loose from its sheath, and it pulled my arm toward a point in the darkness.
“And I?” I asked, keeping my voice steady. “Why me?”
By the glow, his eyebrows twitched once in amusement. “No reason,” he said, “but that I have chosen you for the honor of being by my side.”
The sword pointed deeper into the cave like a hunting dog; I didn't know what would lead me out. From here the dim light of the outside world could still be seen. All at once I made my decision.
“Mark,” I said, letting my voice waver. “Maybe I'm not brave enough.”
“Nonsense,” he said soothingly. He took a step closer. “It will be dangerous. It will be hard. Some may say it is forbidden, dark - but they are only weak. We seek to alter the course of time. But it is nothing that we cannot handle, you and I.”
“But, what you're saying - it's such an immense burden. I don't think I...”
“I need it to save my world,” he said. “Lyn, you must understand. I have lost my people. We must.”
I pulled at the Mani Katti lightly; it swayed like an oar in a strong current. “Mark, what if I'm not ready? What if....”
“Are you frightened?”
“I'm frightened,” I said in a small little voice.
He came closer. “Why don't you hold my hand?” he said.
“Please,” I said. I took that moment to switch the Mani Katti from my right hand to my left. The light fell across the terrain between us, a flat and rocky distance of not more than a man's height. He came toward me, hand outstretched.
“Here,” he said. “I'm right here.”
In one movement I grabbed the dagger from my boot and let the Mani Katti fall to the ground. The light went out as if the spirits themselves were surprised as I closed the distance between us with one lunge and drove the dagger downward. Mark gave a cry as heat gushed against my hand - but he didn't scream for long. With the power of a man facing death, he shoved at me, at first mindlessly, thinking only to distance himself from me as I groped with my left hand to find his throat so I could end it. His fingers found my throat before I found his, but I had found his cheek, and I sightlessly slashed him twice across the face in hopes to loosen his grip. He wailed in pain, one hand leaving my throat to struggle with my dagger arm, but for naught. I knocked his other arm away and wrestled my dagger arm from his grasp, found his chin and pushed his head back, and slit his throat. (Like a savage, some might say.)
Mark still fought me with his dying energy. But it was done. I let him go, wiping the dagger briskly across his robes as I rose. My eyes had begun to adjust to the dim light trickling into the depths of the cave. I saw him struggle to his feet, dark blood dripping in a ghastly stain across his front. Then all at once he collapsed.
I slid the dagger into my boot and picked up the Mani Katti where it lay on the ground. The sword did not glow, its voices silent. I sheathed both blades and turned to walk toward the light.
On the walk back up from the underworld, it occurred to me that I did not even know who Mark's people were, and I had just erased them. I consoled myself with the thought that had I taken the time to save this stranger's dead world, my own kingdom would have been lost. And so what was the difference between he and a wayward bandit but that Mark was not expecting it?
Not that my mind could leave the matter to rest until the knights came into view.
“It was dark,” I sobbed to them, “and the - the demon was so fast, and I couldn't slay it before... before....”
Sain was greatly moved by this tale and pulled my hands toward himself. Just this once, to buy his favor, I let him. “Milady Lyn, your plight will be one remembered for the ages -”
“Oh, Sain, thank you for your care. But please, listen - in that cave, I had a vision...” I put a hand to my forehead and adopted the thickest Sacaen accent I could remember hearing. “Should we treat him as the dead, he shall be dead. Yet in truth he lives, and will come again in another form. He is one soul who takes many forms....”
“You foresee that he shall rise from the dead? Then, Milady, we shall wait for his return!” Sain exclaimed. “Aye, Mark, our boon companion!”
And so the matter was settled quite easily.
In the late afternoon, we came upon a ruined village. The Taliver's work, no doubt. It didn't take long to find the telltale sprouts of Bramimond's Daze behind the ruins of a large home.
“They're soulless beasts,” I whispered to the knights as I plucked the sprouts from the earth one by one. “I will never forgive them. Never.” And it was the truth.
All at once we heard a high-pitched, adorable scream - it was true; screams could be adorable. I smiled to myself. It would be nice to have her along on this trip.
“Be on your guard, Lyndis. There seems to be some sort of commotion over there.”
I looked where he pointed and saw a pegasus between the houses in confirmation. “Could it be?” I gasped, and ran to the pegasus's location.
Of course, it was her, confronted by a pair of bandits. She and I locked eyes, and her eyebrows relaxed - her own, nearly indiscernible gesture that was her sigh of relief. “Ah! Lyn?”
“Florina! What are you doing in a place such as this?”
Her lips pressed together in what might have been the beginnings of a smile, but then her eyes flickered quickly over my shoulder. The knights must have joined us.“Lyn! Is it really you? I... I....” And then she burst into tears. Her performances were always beautiful.
“Come now, no crying,” I said lightly as I came to her side.
We gathered that she had accidentally flown her pegasus into the pair of men before us, and they were not satisfied with mere words for compensation.
I looked about us. Somehow, the main walls of the village had remained intact, looming about us like an impending ambush. Bandits rarely traveled alone. I brought my left hand to the lip of my robe and adjusted it conspicuously, hoping she recognized that I would use these signals now. How many?
Florina sneezed. Many.
I considered paying them off. But it would have cut too deeply into our weaponry budget. Which left displays of violence as the only option, unless one included running.
I was sleep-deprived and more than a little annoyed at the prospect of yet another scuffle with bandits. I had considered the knights little more than tour guides, but it seemed that the world was out to make them protect me as their mission had declared.
The world could wait for an inescapable engagement. As the bandit turned to give some sort of obvious signal, I dashed upon him and knocked him once upon the head. He staggered, but failed to pass out neatly. His companion gave a roar behind me; I turned in time to see Kent engage him.
So much for mercy. While the bandit I had assaulted was still reeling, I braced both hands on my sword and struck him through the ribs.
It was taking too long. The other bandits were already peering over the walls, like they knew that attacking us was probably a good idea but no one had made them do it yet.
“Run!” I ordered my lot. The knights, startled by this hitherto-ungiven command, stalled just long enough to defeat the second bandit before following Florina and me down a dusty road.
Although it was an unremarkable moment, I should mention: Shortly before Florina returned saying that our pursuers had given up, while we were hiding in a rare spot of brush some distance from the village, we encountered an archer. He was returning from a hunting trip with a fresh rabbit carcass when he encountered us, and seemed to decide that we were already friends.
As he brought food, weaponry, and fighting ability with him, we didn't really protest.
Note: If you don't visit the village to recruit Wil, the post-chapter dialogue is still the same. He just randomly pops up like he's been there all along. And then next chapter he's a level 1 archer on your side. It is the most hilarious thing.
Genre: Humor/Drama
Word Count: ~2000
PG-13 for graphic violence
Prologue - Chapter One - Chapter Two
The sunrise found me short of sleep. Although my patience was plenty, I felt my energy spent on better things than trivial things like kindness toward my co-travelers. I imagined that the Lady Lyndis of their minds might as well be weak of resolve, anyway, and so I allowed myself a few unseemingly remarks.
“I thought the Knights of Caelin above rousing women at night,” I sniffed with much indignation. “However will I be beautiful for you if I cannot get my sleep?”
“Milady, you would be just as beautiful with no sleep at all,” Sain exclaimed. I wasn't sure what to make of that.
In any event, Mark suggested to me that we take a brief detour. “It's important,” he said.
“Why need we visit this place, Mark?” I inquired.
“It's very important.”
So along the mountain range separating Sacae and Bern, we took a winding path that might have looked as if it were leading right down into the underworld. We started along a mountain path, but violently and suddenly the ground turned gray, the trees barren, and the sky dusky amber. When pressed, Mark would say only, it's important, or some variant of that.
The Mani Katti trembled in its sheath. I clamped a hand over its hilt to keep it from clattering. I knew not what this place was, but as hunter's instinct, the noise unnerved me.
At last we reached a cave, its opening like the wide jaws of a yawning feline, with rock formations of unlikely proportions. Mark turned and said to me (not “it's important”, to my surprise): “After you.”
“Mark, where have you led us?”
He turned around and observed the interior of the cave, stroking his mysterious facial hair. “There was a people here, a long time ago. An ancient people with a clear understanding of magic - deeper than any scholar today now knows.”
I should have known that I'd replaced the useless but harmless urchin with a schemer with his own agenda.
Mark's eyes flickered to Kent and Sain, and then back to me. “Milady, it is a secret I only trust you to know. Come with me.”
An idea began to surface in my mind. I nodded in my assent, looking as dumbfounded as I could, throwing longing glances back at the knights as I told them to wait like dogs. And like dogs they sat at the cave's entrance with a whimper, watching me and Mark work our way through the cave's teeth.
“Legend has it that the ancients left their knowledge encased in a single crystal in the center of the world.” With this he again lapsed into thoughtful silence. He had led us to the underworld, indeed. Although the ground seemed flat, all at once I was aware that we were descending. The light behind us was rapidly fading, and I worried that we might lose our footing. Mark seemed to as well, turning to me and saying, “Well? Draw your blade.”
I let the trembling Mani Katti loose from its sheath, and it pulled my arm toward a point in the darkness.
“And I?” I asked, keeping my voice steady. “Why me?”
By the glow, his eyebrows twitched once in amusement. “No reason,” he said, “but that I have chosen you for the honor of being by my side.”
The sword pointed deeper into the cave like a hunting dog; I didn't know what would lead me out. From here the dim light of the outside world could still be seen. All at once I made my decision.
“Mark,” I said, letting my voice waver. “Maybe I'm not brave enough.”
“Nonsense,” he said soothingly. He took a step closer. “It will be dangerous. It will be hard. Some may say it is forbidden, dark - but they are only weak. We seek to alter the course of time. But it is nothing that we cannot handle, you and I.”
“But, what you're saying - it's such an immense burden. I don't think I...”
“I need it to save my world,” he said. “Lyn, you must understand. I have lost my people. We must.”
I pulled at the Mani Katti lightly; it swayed like an oar in a strong current. “Mark, what if I'm not ready? What if....”
“Are you frightened?”
“I'm frightened,” I said in a small little voice.
He came closer. “Why don't you hold my hand?” he said.
“Please,” I said. I took that moment to switch the Mani Katti from my right hand to my left. The light fell across the terrain between us, a flat and rocky distance of not more than a man's height. He came toward me, hand outstretched.
“Here,” he said. “I'm right here.”
In one movement I grabbed the dagger from my boot and let the Mani Katti fall to the ground. The light went out as if the spirits themselves were surprised as I closed the distance between us with one lunge and drove the dagger downward. Mark gave a cry as heat gushed against my hand - but he didn't scream for long. With the power of a man facing death, he shoved at me, at first mindlessly, thinking only to distance himself from me as I groped with my left hand to find his throat so I could end it. His fingers found my throat before I found his, but I had found his cheek, and I sightlessly slashed him twice across the face in hopes to loosen his grip. He wailed in pain, one hand leaving my throat to struggle with my dagger arm, but for naught. I knocked his other arm away and wrestled my dagger arm from his grasp, found his chin and pushed his head back, and slit his throat. (Like a savage, some might say.)
Mark still fought me with his dying energy. But it was done. I let him go, wiping the dagger briskly across his robes as I rose. My eyes had begun to adjust to the dim light trickling into the depths of the cave. I saw him struggle to his feet, dark blood dripping in a ghastly stain across his front. Then all at once he collapsed.
I slid the dagger into my boot and picked up the Mani Katti where it lay on the ground. The sword did not glow, its voices silent. I sheathed both blades and turned to walk toward the light.
On the walk back up from the underworld, it occurred to me that I did not even know who Mark's people were, and I had just erased them. I consoled myself with the thought that had I taken the time to save this stranger's dead world, my own kingdom would have been lost. And so what was the difference between he and a wayward bandit but that Mark was not expecting it?
Not that my mind could leave the matter to rest until the knights came into view.
“It was dark,” I sobbed to them, “and the - the demon was so fast, and I couldn't slay it before... before....”
Sain was greatly moved by this tale and pulled my hands toward himself. Just this once, to buy his favor, I let him. “Milady Lyn, your plight will be one remembered for the ages -”
“Oh, Sain, thank you for your care. But please, listen - in that cave, I had a vision...” I put a hand to my forehead and adopted the thickest Sacaen accent I could remember hearing. “Should we treat him as the dead, he shall be dead. Yet in truth he lives, and will come again in another form. He is one soul who takes many forms....”
“You foresee that he shall rise from the dead? Then, Milady, we shall wait for his return!” Sain exclaimed. “Aye, Mark, our boon companion!”
And so the matter was settled quite easily.
In the late afternoon, we came upon a ruined village. The Taliver's work, no doubt. It didn't take long to find the telltale sprouts of Bramimond's Daze behind the ruins of a large home.
“They're soulless beasts,” I whispered to the knights as I plucked the sprouts from the earth one by one. “I will never forgive them. Never.” And it was the truth.
All at once we heard a high-pitched, adorable scream - it was true; screams could be adorable. I smiled to myself. It would be nice to have her along on this trip.
“Be on your guard, Lyndis. There seems to be some sort of commotion over there.”
I looked where he pointed and saw a pegasus between the houses in confirmation. “Could it be?” I gasped, and ran to the pegasus's location.
Of course, it was her, confronted by a pair of bandits. She and I locked eyes, and her eyebrows relaxed - her own, nearly indiscernible gesture that was her sigh of relief. “Ah! Lyn?”
“Florina! What are you doing in a place such as this?”
Her lips pressed together in what might have been the beginnings of a smile, but then her eyes flickered quickly over my shoulder. The knights must have joined us.“Lyn! Is it really you? I... I....” And then she burst into tears. Her performances were always beautiful.
“Come now, no crying,” I said lightly as I came to her side.
We gathered that she had accidentally flown her pegasus into the pair of men before us, and they were not satisfied with mere words for compensation.
I looked about us. Somehow, the main walls of the village had remained intact, looming about us like an impending ambush. Bandits rarely traveled alone. I brought my left hand to the lip of my robe and adjusted it conspicuously, hoping she recognized that I would use these signals now. How many?
Florina sneezed. Many.
I considered paying them off. But it would have cut too deeply into our weaponry budget. Which left displays of violence as the only option, unless one included running.
I was sleep-deprived and more than a little annoyed at the prospect of yet another scuffle with bandits. I had considered the knights little more than tour guides, but it seemed that the world was out to make them protect me as their mission had declared.
The world could wait for an inescapable engagement. As the bandit turned to give some sort of obvious signal, I dashed upon him and knocked him once upon the head. He staggered, but failed to pass out neatly. His companion gave a roar behind me; I turned in time to see Kent engage him.
So much for mercy. While the bandit I had assaulted was still reeling, I braced both hands on my sword and struck him through the ribs.
It was taking too long. The other bandits were already peering over the walls, like they knew that attacking us was probably a good idea but no one had made them do it yet.
“Run!” I ordered my lot. The knights, startled by this hitherto-ungiven command, stalled just long enough to defeat the second bandit before following Florina and me down a dusty road.
Although it was an unremarkable moment, I should mention: Shortly before Florina returned saying that our pursuers had given up, while we were hiding in a rare spot of brush some distance from the village, we encountered an archer. He was returning from a hunting trip with a fresh rabbit carcass when he encountered us, and seemed to decide that we were already friends.
As he brought food, weaponry, and fighting ability with him, we didn't really protest.
Note: If you don't visit the village to recruit Wil, the post-chapter dialogue is still the same. He just randomly pops up like he's been there all along. And then next chapter he's a level 1 archer on your side. It is the most hilarious thing.