Invisible Ties | Fire Emblem Awakening (Novelization)

Chapter 26: Amnesia Dreams

Robin

"Fools! Struggle all you want! You cannot un-write what is already written!"

I hurled a lightning ball at Validar. He leapt to the side to avoid my attack, but he was too late. It hit him in the stomach. He staggered back, one hand clutching the wound. Then he tried to raise the other to cast a spell.

Chrom charged towards him, shouting, and the sorcerer turned. Lightning burst from my hand again. It flew across the room in an unwavering line, staying true to its target. Validar's eyes widened as he began to look over his shoulder at me.

The lightning pierced through his heart.

He stilled, his tome slipping from his fingers. Then he fell.

He landed face down on the floor in a cloud of swirling, purple magic. The discharge from his unused spell would probably turn his corpse to ashes.

Chrom screeched to a halt in front of the body. He stared at it. Then he looked up at me, breaking into one of the widest smiles I'd ever seen. This was it. We'd saved the world.

He began to cross the distance between us, his back to Validar. His blue-grey eyes were sparkling. When he was just a few feet away, he lifted his hand, reaching for my shoulder. "Robin, I –"

Movement behind him caught my eye. I yelled in surprise.

Validar rose up on his knees. He was not dead. And the cloud of magic around him had not been discharge.

He threw a hand out. "This isn't over! Damn you both!"

Magic barrelled towards us. Everything began to move in slow motion. Chrom tried to turn around, but he was far too late to defend himself. On instinct, I reached out, my fingers moving across the gap between us. My hand connected with his shoulder. An overwhelming sense of strength coursed through me, and I shoved him out of the firing line.

The spell hit me in the chest. Pain branched from my heart across every fibre of my body. It built higher and higher, burning all my organs, eating me alive. I tried to scream, but I was paralysed.

My body became weightless. My vision turned black.

***

I thought I would scream as my eyes flew open. Barely a squeak came out.

My head was being smashed to pieces. My lungs were aching, tightening. Something was smothering my airways.

I lifted my face from my pillow, my gasps for air so deep that I began to heave. I tried to push myself into a sitting position. My legs were stuck.

A panicked cry escaped my lips. I thrashed out, my breathing still hoarse and desperate in my throat. The thing I was tangled in suddenly shifted. "Robin? Oh gods, what –"

My legs slipped free of his, and I launched myself towards the edge of the bed. I hung over it on my hands and knees, violently shaking as I dry heaved. My head felt like someone was carving it up. Perhaps I was going to die in the real world, too.

"Robin!" Chrom shuffled across the mattress to sit next to me. He put his arm around my shoulders. "You're all right. It was just a dream. You're all right."

My breathing slowed from wheezes to quick pants. My limbs gave out, and I collapsed against his side. "I – I –"

"Shh." He brushed my fringe away from my forehead with shaking fingers. "You don't have to tell me now. You can tell me when you're calm again, all right?"