Invisible Ties | Fire Emblem Awakening (Novelization)

Chapter 12: Nothing's Fair in Love and War

Chrom

Deciding that Marth would most likely be sneaking out the way she had come in, Chrom took a shortcut to the maple grove and arrived just in time. Marth was walking towards him quickly, her head down and her cape flowing out behind her. She didn't appear to have noticed him yet.

"Going somewhere?" Chrom asked. "You have a bad habit of leaving without saying goodbye, you know."

Marth stopped in her tracks, her head snapping up. Her shoulders were slumped, but her eyes were wide and the moonlight made them look as if they were shining with tears. For a moment, she stared at him with alarm. Then she drew herself up straighter, setting her mouth into a hard, impassive line. She tugged her fringe down over one eye so that it was completely buried. Then she properly met his gaze, unhesitatingly, for the first time since he'd met her. "Yes. I'm afraid I have a few bad habits."

"Good ones, too," Chrom said. "You saved my life as well as both of my sisters. Is there a way I can repay you? Some favour I can grant?"

Her lips actually jerked upwards at the corners in a sad smile. "Hearing you offer is reward enough."

"But there must be something..."

"I already have what I came for: history has been rewritten."

"And what future averted?"

He regretted the words as soon as they left his lips. Marth's eye shone brighter, and he wondered if the tears hadn't just been a trick of the moonlight after all. "After the exalt's untimely assassination, the Fire Emblem would be stolen. This, in turn, would lead to a great war, and soon to the end of mankind itself." She turned her face away from him, a tremble in her voice. "But I'm sure that sounds like madness to you."

Chrom studied her thoughtfully. Even looking at her side profile, he could see the trickle of silver moonlight that was running down her cheek.

He gave her the best thing that he could, the thing he had given to another woman who he cared for in a different way. "Strangely, no. It doesn't. Somehow, I know I can trust you. And I hope someday to repay your favours."

"Perhaps one day you shall." Marth scrubbed a hand over her cheek and lifted her head. She walked towards him until she was just a foot away, keeping her eyes lowered. "Until then."

Chrom hesitated. There was so much more he wanted to ask, and so much more that he wanted to say to help her. But he stepped aside.

She flew past him before he could change his mind. He turned around and watched her stalk down the pathway until she disappeared from sight.

Perhaps his tired mind was playing tricks on him after such a long day, but there was something about Marth that reminded him of himself – something more than just her fighting style.

***

Robin

Despite my pounding headache, I knew when Chrom had joined us again before he'd even said a word. We were still in Emmeryn's room, and I had not long finished telling the others about what had happened in the gardens with Marth. Now I was leaning against the wall in silence, wishing that I could go back to bed. I couldn't stop thinking about my nightmare, and it was making my headache worse.

"It will take time to investigate how the assassination plot got so far," Phila was saying when I felt our captain's arrival. "We have no leads at present."

"It was Plegia!" Chrom exclaimed, appearing in the corner of my eye. "I'm certain of it. They'd do anything for the Emblem. Emm, you can't stay here. Come to Ferox where it's safe."