"You should get some rest, my Lord," Thomas advised as he approached Richard Ordrin who was standing by a small fire in the Azure Hawk's camp. Richard's eyes blankly stared into the fire and watched the flames dance back and forth as if they were joyfully dancing. "Even with the Hellhounds disturbing them through the night, it will still be a tough battle tomorrow."
"I'm too restless to sleep," Richard answered and broke his gaze away from the fire to begin looking up at Sailest and its rings that filled the night sky.
"Is it about Lady Lucina?"
"…Yes." Richard was no stranger to battle, and having grown up in a family of knights it only felt natural to hold a sword and be strong, but everything had its limits. "At most, a ten-year-old child should be practicing swordplay at home, or in her case studying magic under a Magister. Even though Olivia was younger when I allowed her to be part of the Holst subjugation a few years ago she was accompanied by my best knights."
"I remember," Thomas chuckled and joined Richard in staring at Sailest. "We had a hard time keeping her under control with how much fire was burning in her heart to make our lands safe."
"And yet, Lucina is out here on the frontline of a war with not even a fraction of the training or experience Olivia has, because of the words of a single man." Bitter resentment bled into Richard's voice as he recalled that day in the throne room. "…And I can't even do anything to protect her anymore."
"…" A heavy silence fell over the two men. Richard couldn't get the image of a battered and worn-out Lucina in clothes that looked like they would barely protect her from the elements while sleeping on that man's back out of his mind. The warm puffs of his breath that wafted in front of his face only seemed to make the cold that much harsher.
"You should get some sleep, Thomas," Richard absentmindedly said.
"Not until you do, my Lord," Thomas countered.
"That's-… Hm?" As Richard went to respond, something caught his eye; a large number of the remaining Hellhound knights were gathering near the edge of their camp.
"What are those punks doing?" Thomas spat but a glare from Richard shut him up. Since there was not much else to do this late at night, the two men crossed their camp and headed toward the crowd of people to see what was going on. Despite the large amount of people gathered, the crowd was eerily quiet with not a single person speaking. They pushed their way through the crowd to eventually find what everyone was staring at and Richard felt like someone punched him in the gut.
"…" Slowly, painfully slowly, five people covered in blood made their way out of The Crimson Forest and back to camp. Because of the temperature, the blood that bathed them had frozen and dried with it occasionally cracking and flaking off like red snowflakes. It was impossible to tell how injured they were because no one knew whose blood was whose.
"What's going on here!?" Timothy Braxton finally emerged from his tent since his sleep was being disturbed by people still being awake and he angrily marched over to the crowd. "The fuck are you all-!?" But his words were halted at the sight of the five surviving Hellhounds and, although it only appeared for the briefest moment, Richard saw annoyed disgust flash across Timothy's face before he hid it under a mask of concern. "Sister!" he called out as Lucina led her companions into camp. Lucina didn't even flinch or respond as if she couldn't hear him and only stopped walking when reaching the edge of the crowd. Annoyed that she was ignoring him, Timothy approached her and reached out to grab Lucina's shoulder while saying, "My dear sister, tell me what-!?!"
"…" Timothy jerked his hand back as he felt a wave of killing intent slam into him as he found Lucina's empty glare from beneath her blood-drenched locks of hair. Despite her exhaustion, her hands trembled as her hate reignited upon seeing Timothy. Should she kill him? Right now? It would be so easy. She-
"Lucina~?" White hair like a waterfall of diamonds shimmered in Sailest's light and banished all other thoughts from Lucina's mind. It was an unmistakable sight in the crowd of knights and Lucina took a step toward it only for the hair to disappear into the crowd.
"Are yo-!?" Timothy once again tried to touch Lucina but she burst into a sprint and ran past him into the camp.
"Luc-!" Richard thought she was running toward him and tried to get her attention but she ignored him like he wasn't there and continued to run.
"!!!" Her steps were hasty and her broken balance made her trip and tumble multiple times, but Lucina continued to chase that white hair that fluttered in the wind only to disappear behind another obstacle. She didn't care. There was only a single person Lucina knew with such long white hair! The hair disappeared into her share tent and Lucina practically fell into the tent to finally meet her.
***
"Olivia!?" I cried out her name as I picked myself up off the ground from my fall.
"Welcome back, Lucina~." There she was, sitting on her knees on top of my sleeping mat. She wore the same ornate white and gold dress she had on when seeing me off, her beautiful shimmering hair spilled over her body like a cloak, her soft white skin seemed to glow in Sailest's light which came in from the now open tent flap, and her blue eyes…were dull?
"O-Olivia?" Was she alright? Did something happen to her for her to lose her light? I stumbled toward her while ignoring the burning pain in my muscles and the aching of my broken ribs, and reached out my hand to touch her.
"You should wash up, Lucina~," she chuckled and evaded my hand which was covered in blood.
"I'm s-sorry!" How could I touch her when I was covered in blood!? I was lucky she didn't berate me and curse me out of the tent for appearing like this and attempting to touch her. I'm so stupid!
"It's okay~. I would never hate you, Lucina~." Right, Olivia is so kind and forgiving that something like this is nothing! She gestured to a bucket that was sitting in the corner, "Here, you should wash yourself~."
"I should w-wash myself." I peeled my blood-caked wizard's robe off my body and let it fall to the ground as I grabbed the bucket and returned to my sleeping mat. Olivia knelt down in front of me and moved my hands over the bucket. She felt so cold…wait… "You're n-not wearing g-gloves!? Or a c-coat! A-And the blood wil-!"
"We can talk about that later~." Right…later… I had to fill the bucket? "You need water to wash yourself, silly~," she said with a laugh that wrapped itself around my aching heart.
"S-Sorry."
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"You have nothing to apologize for~." Her dull blue eyes watched the bucket as I used what little magic I managed to recover to conjure water and fill the bucket before using fire magic to warm it up without burning the wood. "My little Lucina's such a talented Magister~."
"It's n-nothing much." This was taking too long. If I wasn't recovering from magic exhaustion then I could have easily done this in a snap! Why can't I be cool in front of Olivia? Why does she always see my bad si-
"Do I need to personally wash you, now~?" Olivia's words interrupted my dark thoughts and I looked into her eyes. Her blue…cold… "Such a greedy girl, you've become~." She reached down for the cloth I would use to wash with.
"I-I can d-do it!" I grabbed it before she could and splashed it into the water. Even now she kept teasing me and had that calm smile on her face. I had to focus! I could do something as simple as washing myself! Ripping my gloves off, tossing my chainmail shirt aside, and rolling up the sleeves of my ruined shirt I started to wash off the blood that had soaked through my robe and dried to my skin.
"Hmm~," Olivia hummed to herself as I washed…I washed…
"W-Why isn't it co-coming off?" The blood was still on my arm despite me dunking the cloth back into the water bucket and scrubbing! Was it my finger's fault? The cold had made me lose most feeling in my fingers a while ago, but did it get so bad now that I can't even wash myself correctly!?
"Because you need to scrub harder~."
"I n-need to scrub harder!" I had to get it off!
"Lucina?" I heard Elise enter the tent, but I had to focus!
"Harder~."
"Harder!" I need to be clean!
"Lucina!?" Elise rushed to my side. Could she help me scrub the blood off?
"You'll never be clean~."
"I'll never be clean!"
"Lucina, you're scratching your skin off!"
***
"!?!" Lucina finally stopped scrubbing when Elise grabbed her arm and forced her to stop. Elise's eyes were filled with panic and only when Lucina looked back down at her arm did she figure out why. Lucina had been scrubbing so hard that she scratched the top layer of her skin off and was actively bleeding onto her straw sleeping mat. She desperately looked around but Olivia was nowhere to be seen. "W-Wha-… Why…?" Lucina's breathing was unstable and her eyes darted around the tent in a panic.
"Here, let me help you." Elise took the cloth from Lucina's trembling hands and cleaned it off in the water. She knew what was happening and had to get Lucina to come back to reality with her words, "It's okay, Lucina. You're back in our tent."
"Tent?" Lucina's fearful eyes fixated on Elise.
"Yes, our share tent." Elise recovered just enough magic to regrow Lucina's skin and did her best to clean the blood off. However, as she looked at the water that was quickly turning a dark red, she knew they would need more buckets. "We made it back to camp, remember?"
"Camp… Yes." The wildness never left Lucina's eyes as she continued to reorganize her scattered thoughts, "We're back…at camp."
"Yes. You, me, Peter, Jeremy, and Carl all made it back; they're waiting outside so that no one disturbs us and I can help clean you."
"And Olivia…is here too?"
"…Her Highness-"
"Is always with you~," the hallucination of Olivia reappeared and spoke over Elise so that Lucina couldn't hear Elise's words. The hallucination knelt down next to her and leaned on Lucina's shoulder causing a coldness to seep into Lucina's soul. "I miss you, Lucina~."
"Yeah… You m-miss me," Lucina unconsciously repeated the words aloud and smiled to herself. "Y-You'll be here, O-Olivia."
"…" A stuttering cadence that came and went, speaking to someone who wasn't there; Elise had seen this behavior before during her time in R'eldrun from the most devout of worshippers who rarely saw the light of day. She had always tried to be careful and help Lucina not overdo it with her magic during battles in an attempt to try and stave off the consequences of continuously subjecting one's self to magic exhaustion, but Timothy's endless missions and the recent battle in the forest seemed to have pushed Lucina over the edge. Now she could only helplessly watch as Lucina would continue to slip further and further into her madness as time went on. Elise was conflicted about this since on one hand, this meant Lucina was getting closer to the gods which was something to be praised, but on the other, this only happened because of Timothy's treachery which tainted the occasion since this wasn't something Lucina did willingly. All the people Elise met in R'eldrun who were like this all walked that path based on their own free will, so to have such a sacred act be forced upon someone left a bitter taste in her mouth.
"Is s-something wrong, Elise?" Lucina asked when Elise stopped washing as she lost herself in thought.
"Oh, nothing," she lied. Once a Magister went down this path there was no way back, as far as Elise knew, so she could only do her best to be there for Lucina while ignoring her own hallucinations whispering to her from the corner of the tent. These past few months had taken their toll on all of them but Elise had to hold firm. No one was there. Her family died years ago. She had a self-imposed duty to Lucina as her senior, so she would force herself to ignore the talking corpse of her older brother in the corner.
"…Say, Lucina~?" the fake Olivia asked as she continued to watch Elise clean.
"Hmm?"
"You shouldn't be so forgiving~." Her words dripped like poison into Lucina's ears and began infecting her heart.
"I should-dn't f-forgive?" Lucina repeated which caused Elise to glance at her worriedly.
"It hurts to see you like this~," the fake whispered while her fingers danced along Lucina's blood-stained arm.
"Like this...I-I shouldn't be l-like this!"
"Lucina!?" Elise stopped washing as Lucina suddenly grabbed her arms and the wildness flared up in Lucina's eyes as she stared at Elise.
"You know who did this to you~. You shouldn't forgive someone who betrayed you~."
"T-Timothy! He… He b-betrayed-!" Lucina was having difficulty speaking as her heart rate spiked and she struggled to breathe.
"Lucina, you need to breathe!" Elise dropped the cloth and brought Lucina into a hug to try and calm her down from her manic state. The corpse in the corner grew louder.
"You should fucking kill him~!"
"I'm g-gonna fucking kill him!" Lucina's entire body was violently shaking and tears parted the blood that stained her face. She began wheezing and failed to speak further despite trying which only made her shake that much harder, and she wrapped her arms around Elise in a desperate plea for comfort.
"We will!" Suddenly, Elise grabbed Lucina's face and forced her to look up at her. The same madness in Lucina's eyes was now reflected in Elise's as she succumbed and listened to the whispers of her dead brother, "We will, but not now." She and Lucina stared into each other's souls as an oppressive darkness overcame the two of them. Even in her maddened state, Elise wanted to set an example for Lucina so she spoke slowly to not stutter or slur her speech, "Killing him now would be murder. The only one who had proof of Timothy's deeds was Ming, but he's dead. We can't go forward without proof. We can't be sloppy."
"But-!"
"If it's murder," Elise cut Lucina off and her eyes burned with conviction, "then we will be imprisoned or killed, which means you won't be able to see Her Highness again!"
"!!!" Lucina's mind reeled at the thought of not being with Olivia.
"…Patience is a virtue~," the fake Olivia whispered into Lucina's ear with new insight. "You need to come home to me, Lucina~."
"P-Patience…" Lucina idly nodded in agreement with Elise and Olivia's words.
"Yes, patience. Don't worry, patience doesn't mean we'll sit and do nothing." A smile played across Elise's face as she returned to washing Lucina's body. For the rest of the night, no one was allowed to enter the share tent other than Peter, Jeremy, and Carl once it was time for them to clean up. And, as they cleaned themselves, Elise explained her plan to everyone under Sailest's divine light.
***
"Such a difficult woman!" James complained as he plopped down in a chair in his room. It had been three days since Olivia suddenly collapsed after reading a letter sent by her father that he was hoping said Lucina was dead, but instead, Olivia seemed even more determined with her goal of sending aid to the Hellhounds which only meant one thing. "Braxton failed! How hard is it to kill a kid on a battlefield!?"
"Everything needs to be done with care, Your Highness," Count Barrington replied as he and a few other of the Crown Prince's closest supporters were also in the room. "If Braxton acts too hastily then the Ordrins won't sit quietly."
"Tch," James clicked his tongue in annoyance at the thought. "It's always the Ordrins, isn't it?"
"Unfortunately so, Your Highness," another of his supporters spoke up. "They wouldn't hesitate to act against the crown even during a war! Their brazenness knows no bounds, just like when they killed your-"
"Enough!" James' shout silenced the room, and the man who was speaking quickly sealed his lips as his brownnosing crossed the line. James' next words were slow and laced with ice, "Let my mother rest, and do not speak of that incident again."
"M-My deepest apologies, Your Highness!" The loss of his mother was a huge blow to James and he still remembered the weeks of grief he witnessed his father go through as he wept at her casket's side. James and everyone in the palace knew the second queen was the one behind the 'accident' that happened that day, but thanks to the intervention of the Azure Hawk knights there was no evidence linking her to the crime which meant his mother's death was never truly solved.
"It's already bad enough I have to live under the same roof as that bitch who stole my mother's life, but I also have to deal with my fiancé being the daughter of the man who helped protect her! I know father wants her here to keep the Duke in check but that doesn't make it any less annoying to play house with her." James clenched his fists and spat, "And now she's acting out because of some 'friend' who was sent to die in the Hellhounds? It's like she knows just how to get on my nerves and is doing everything she can to do it."
Barrington found his voice and spoke after clearing his throat, "But this also means you found the right way to tame the Crown Princess. It's obvious how much the Felswore's daughter means to her, so when she finally receives the news of her death then the Crown Princess will fall into such despair that she will be able to be easily controlled by you."
"Assuming Braxton does his job," James scoffed and picked up a cup of tea to calm his nerves. "If I can break that spirit of hers and she becomes a pretty-looking toy then this will be worth it to see the look on the Duke's face. How dare he act so arrogantly when he was the one who drew blood first!"
"It is as you say, Your-"
"Your Highness!?!" A woman in a fancy dress burst into the room with a panicked look on her face.
Barrington chastised the woman, "Control yourself in His Highness' presence, Count Aubrey!"
"…What is it?" James was feeling his headache worsen but allowed the Count to continue.
"It's terrible!" the Count said and delivered the last news anyone in the room was expecting, or wanting to hear. "News from R'eldrun states that, under the witness of Daughter Elise, Lucina Felswore has laid claim to be The Harbinger of Zulm!"