Ostia was large, as far as Lycian territories went, but even
so the shrine of Roland could be reached with only two days of easy riding. The
remnants of the Lycia Alliance Army were not taking an easy ride. They pushed
themselves to a frantic pace, turning what Lilina remembered to be a relatively
calm and scenic country road into a nightmare of anxiety. The bright sunshine
and warm weather was at odds with the snorting of the horses and the clink of
armor and weapons.
The faces of the villagers they passed were drawn and
frightened. Lilina wished she could stop and talk to them. Why were they
afraid? Was it Bern? Her father’s death? The coup, or the army now racing
through their land? All of the above? There were still so many things she didn’t
know about Ostia and her people, things she had to learn quickly. For one
moment Lilina felt the full crushing weights of despair and obligation. The
change in mood startled her horse, and the black palfrey dropped out of a
canter, mincing her hooves and shaking her head. It was enough to drag Lilina
back to the present and give her something to do as she regained control of her
delicate mount.
The remaining army streamed around the pair, except for Sue
who slowed. Next to the sleeker Lycian palfreys and coursers, Sue’s scruffy
brown Sacaen horse looked ridiculous. Next to the shining steel plate of the
Lycian armor, Sue’s own breastplate of bronze scales looked just as odd. But in
this case, the unusual came across as a breath of fresh air.
Lilina straightened from soothing her high-strung mare as Sue
approached.
“Lilina,” Sue said, “do you need to stop?”
“No, I’m alright,” Lilina replied. She sighed. “There’s just
a lot happening, isn’t here?”
Sue inclined her head, and her dark hair gleamed emerald in
the strong sunlight. She didn’t seem to want to say any more.
Lilina stopped herself from sighing again. Sue was always so
quiet, she’d never been able to understand the other girl and that hadn’t
changed in the years they’d been apart. “There’s not really time to stop, is
there? No time to enjoy all this.” She gestured around, to the open countryside
that the army had disturbed by their passing. “Certainly no time for weakness
on anyone’s part. I have to be stronger.” She kicked her mare firmly on the sides,
and the palfrey jumped into a startled canter, following after the army that
had passed them by.
Sue caught up quickly. The horses of Sacae possessed a
uniquely ground-eating gait that made them the equal of any of their larger,
Lycian kin. For a moment, the two rode side by side in silence. Then Sue said, “No
sense in pushing too hard either. Everything is harder and more dangerous when
you’re stressed.”
Lilina looked over at her, eyebrows raised. “With all that’s
happened, with everything I’ve lost and everything we could still lose, you
think I can just…not be stressed?” Her words came out with more anger than she
intended, but Sue seemed less upset by the anger than by any of Lilina’s
previous attempts to be polite and courteous.
“We need you,” Sue said bluntly. “We need every strong
person who is able and willing to fight. Everyone who is brave and true.”
Lilina flushed nearly as red as her mantle. No one had said
they needed her before this. Certainly, Roy had not been unhappy to have her
once she made her opinions known, but he never would have asked for her to
come. None of them would.
“I-”
“But I know,” Sue said, continuing as if Lilina had not started
to speak, “that sometimes being strong and brave means being able to ask for
what you need.”
There was no time to reply. They had caught up to their
comrades. The Lycia Alliance Army had arrived at the Shrine of Roland.
Roy moved back towards her, the army parting around his
white courser like water around a rock. In his brand new armor and mantle he
looked every bit like a war leader and nothing at all like the fifteen year old
boy Lilina knew he was. “Lilina,” he said. “I’m glad you caught up. This is the
cave right? What can we expect inside?”
Sue’s comments were forgotten as Lilina turned her attention
to the problem at hand. She followed Roy back through the ranks of the army and
to the entrance to the cave. “This is right. It’s a volcanic cave, so it’ll be
hot and difficult to traverse.” She paused. “There’s no point brining the
horses, or most of the army. Only take a few who can help.”
“I’ll go,” Sue volunteered, riding up behind them.
Roy looked at Lilina and she shrugged.
“That’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ll go pick out a few others.
Try to remember what you can about the Shrine.”
Lilina slid down from the saddle in a swirl of crimson and
maroon. She took off her mantle and rolled it up. She pulled a spell book out
of one of her saddlebags and stuffed the mantle into the empty spot. The fine
wool of her kirtle would be warm enough in a lava cave without adding a full
cloak to it.
“There’s not much to remember,” she said to Roy as he
rejoined her on foot, followed by a few of his knights and fighters. “The
Shrine is at the back of the cave. The route is narrow and the floor is
treacherous. We’ll need to be careful.”
One of the knights, a man named Alan, if Lilina remembered
correctly, spoke. “Please allow us to proceed ahead of you and clear the way my
lord, my lady.”
Roy nodded, and the chosen few streamed into the cave. Roy
walked more slowly, next to Lilina. Sue moved up just ahead of them, but kept
her bow held loosely in one hand.
“Are you alright, Lilina?” Roy asked. He, too, had noticed
her falling out of the army earlier.
Lilina shrugged again. With one hand she raised her skirts
to jump over a small crack in the floor. Small wisps of smoke rose up from it
and similar cracks all the way through to the shrine. Lilina had only come here
once before, and then her father had lifted her up over all the worst of the
dangerous parts. Lilina shook her head and blinked a few times to discourage
any tears. “I’d be lying if I said I was fine, but there isn’t time for
mourning. I have to be strong for the sake of Ostia.”
Roy offered her a small smile. “Good for you, Lilina.”
Lilina clearly heard Sue snort from her place ahead of them.
Roy heard it too, but misunderstood. “Is everything alright,
Sue?” he asked.
Sue turned around as if to reply, but the sudden clamor of
metal on metal interrupted her. She whipped back around and broke into a run,
pulling an arrow out of her quiver as she did so.
“It must be bandits!” Roy said, drawing his sword from its
scabbard. “Do you think they’ve taken Durandal?”
Lilina’s grip tightened on the spell book. “Only the worthy
can remove the sword from its rest. I think we should give these bandits the
bad news.”
“Lilina…” Roy said.
Lilina didn’t respond. She just started running to catch up
to their comrades, to reach a place where her actions would make a difference,
where, for a little while, she could forget everything but the moment right in
front of her.
A follow-up to this. Takes place right before chapter 8x. As always, heavily Lano Canon ™ (though maybe not as much as the first chapter honestly). 1,835 words.
Roy was holding his conference in the dining hall. Perhaps
the throne room would have been more appropriate, but it had yet to be cleaned
from the signs of battle. Ostians were more frugal than most other Lycian residents,
but Ostia Castle had long been held to be unimpregnable. Comfort and confidence
had allowed for the collecting of no few items less than easily cleaned or
repaired, and a few things that would need to be replaced entirely.
Lilina had spent all the previous day and most of this
morning overseeing the clean-up. It was not until Sue excused herself to attend
Roy’s war meeting that she realized one was being held at all. His lack of
inclusion stung, all the more for the fact that they had shared the same early
training in matters of war. His audacity at holding such a meeting in her own
home without so much as consulting her stung even more.
Lilina intended to make sure he did not forget her again. She
had washed the signs of captivity, battle, and labor from her features, and
dressed in a crimson mantle and a kirtle of finely woven maroon wool, and wore
only minimal ornamentation – nice enough for Lady Ostia, practical enough for
travelling the realm. The Sacaen cut tunics and trousers that her late mother
had favored would have been even more practical, but Lilina knew that she must
remind those in the castle of her status – and she would not do that by emphasizing
her slightly foreign blood.
She opened the double oak doors leading into the dining room
without bothering to knock. It was, after all, her castle. Everyone present –
no small number of knights and mercenaries as well as the merchant Merlinus and
Sue, the sole Sacean representative, looked up in surprise. Roy’s first look
was irritation at being interrupted, but at the sight of her it changed to
acute embarrassment.
In the past Lilina might have smiled at that expression. She
did not because she remembered her surrounding and injured dignity. This time
Roy was not a young boy caught stealing cookies before dinner, but a military
commander holding a meeting without his host’s consent. Childhood friend or
not, Roy had overstepped his bounds and he was well aware.
“What, then, are our plans for the immediate future?” Lilina
asked as she inserted herself at the head of the table, right next to Roy. Sir
Marcus was gallant enough to make room for her, even if his master was not.
Roy got over his embarrassment quicker than he would have
even a few months ago, no doubt a benefit of being in charge of a large force. “The
Lycia Alliance Army has to make a stand against Bern somewhere,” he said. “A
fortress like Ostia would be useful, but I don’t like the idea of fighting near
so many civilians.”
Lilina nodded. If they stayed here, the castle’s very imperviousness
would work against them. Bern could simply trap them. The castle could hold out
for an impressive amount of time, if it came to a siege. But it would be harder
to stand by while the invading army took out their whims and frustrations on an
innocent populous. That Ostia would be a battleground, Lilina had already
accepted. It came from having the most available land. But the fewer of her
people were on it, the better. “What are we facing? What are their numbers?”
Roy paused for a moment, a slight hesitation that Lilina
would not have noticed had she not known him as well as she did. “It would be
safer for you to remain here, to hold Ostia for us while we lured them away.”
“I am not staying behind,” Lilina said. Once before she had
allowed herself to be persuaded in such a way, and due to that she could not
even be with her father when he died. She had many reasons for wanting to go,
but that was the one that was likely to get the result she wanted. “They
murdered my father, Roy.” Her use of her father’s memory was meant for
manipulation, but that did not make her grief or rage any less real, and Roy
knew it.
His gaze softened somewhat. “I’m sorry,” he said, as he had
said twice before.
“I don’t want apologies,”said Lilina. She placed her hands
on the table and leaned forward. “I want revenge. I want to build a monument to
my father. The largest funeral pyre Elibe has ever seen.”
There could have been an awkward silence there, but Marcus
stepped in before it could begin. “Spoken like you father would have, at your
age,” he said, and inclined his head in a brief bow as an apology for interrupting.
He may have been amused, or dismayed, or reproachful, but none of that showed
on his face. Marcus was as ever a true knight, and never allowed his personal
feelings to color his work. “Too, we could use your abilities. Our forces are
heavily bent towards physical attacks.”
Roy took the exit Marcus had provided him. “If you truly
wish to come, we’ll be glad of your help. Ostia is the best military resource
in Lycia and we’ll need that to equal Bern.” He hesitated again. “But it will
take more than mere numbers or skill to turn the tides. They have dragons on
their side, real dragons from all we’ve seen and heard.”
“But how could that be?” Lilina asked, all political
maneuvering temporarily fleeing from her mind. “We defeated them a thousand
years ago!”
“That is not entirely true,” said Merlinus, inserting
himself into the conversation for the first time. He had always been slightly
stuffy and self-important, and Lilina had largely ignored him. Now, from the
way that everyone turned to face him with surprise, everyone but Marcus, she
could tell she wasn’t the only one.
“Do you know something about the dragons?” Roy asked him. “Something
more than what you told me before?” Lilina heard an echo of her own discontent
in Roy’s voice and realized, for the first time, that perhaps she was not the
only one being shut out by those who thought they knew better.
The merchant offered and apologetic shrug. “It is not
something your parents wished you to know, and so I have kept my silence all
these long years,” he said. “Now, however, I believe it is wiser for you to
know. When they were not much older than you, Lord Eliwood, Lord Hector, and
Lady Lyndis fought and defeated a dragon that was summoned here from elsewhere.”
A wave of shocked murmurs rose almost involuntarily around
the table. Marcus stepped in to stop the meeting from straying into chaos. “Merlinus
and I were both present for that venture, close enough to see how it very
nearly ended in failure. At the time your parents had the help of several
divine weapons. To go into battle against dragons with less would be foolish.”
“Lord Hector mentioned the divine weapons to me, but he said
nothing of that,” Roy mused. “In fact that was why we turned to Ostia in the
first place. He said there was a weapon to fight dragons here.”
Lilina did not waste time wondering why her parents had
never told her about the dragons. Thinking over things they had told her she realized
that, in a way, they had done their best to prepare her – making sure she got
training and practice not only in running Ostia but also in fighting, and
making sure she was well-versed in the lore of both Elibe as a whole and Lycia.
“Ostia is the home of a shrine to Roland, a shrine that
contains his holy sword Durandal,” she said. “It is located not far from the
capitol. That must be the weapon he mentioned.”
“I remember,” Marcus said. “Lord Eliwood once used that very
sword.”
“Then we should retrieve it, first thing,” said Roy, taking
charge of the meeting again. “I will want a fuller briefing on what happened in
those days later.”
“I would like to be present as well,” Lilina said.
Roy nodded. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t
suppose you know where the other divine weapons are?”
“Not exactly,” Lilina admitted. She tapped her finger
against her lips in a gesture that anyone who knew her would take as a sign
that she was thinking. It only took a moment for her to consider what she knew.
She shrugged. “The divine weapons were used by the eight heroes. It’s likely
that each nation has custodianship of one. At the very least there are no more
in Ostia.”
Sue spoke, for the first time from what Lilina could tell. “There
is one such weapon in Sacae, but it’s far away and likely possessed by the
traitors who attacked my clan.”
Roy frowned. “Then we’ll have to deal with that, as well as
the others, later. We should make Durandal the priority. Only then can we turn
ourselves to researching the remainder.” He turned to face Lilina. “How soon
can you be ready to lead us to this shrine of Roland?”
“I’m already packed,” Lilina said. She had anticipated
having to follow the army rather than being accepted as one of them. Now she
was grateful for her foresight. “I can leave as soon as you can.”
“And the sooner the better,” Roy said. “We’ll leave at dawn.
Make sure everyone is ready to move.”
That was the end of the meeting. The members of the rag-tag
Lycia Alliance were well-used to working together by now. They immediately
scattered to attend to their own needs.
Roy caught hold of Lilina’s sleeve as she back to rise, so
she settled back and waited for them to be left alone.
“I’m sorry,” he said, again. “I didn’t mean to leave you
out. I just wanted to protect you.”
Lilina smiled and patted his hand where it rested near hers
on the table. “I’ve had enough of being protected. I don’t want to wait at home
to learn whether I’ve lost any more people I care about.”
“I’ll be happy to have you with me,” said Roy. “I mean that.
All of this…it’s so much sometimes, I don’t know how I’ll pull it off. Having
your support might make it more bearable.”
Lilina rose from the table and offered her hand to him. Roy
took it and allowed her to pull him to his feet. “You’ll always have my
support, Roy,” she said. “As long as you remember to ask for it.”
“And,” he said with a laugh that was no less genuine for its
undercurrent of strain, “if I don’t remember to ask, you’ll make sure to remind
me.”
“Indeed. Is there anything I can do to make the departure
smoother?”
“As a matter of fact-”
They left the room together, talking as if nothing, not
doubts, not politics, not death, had interrupted their long friendship.
anyway Lilina is Hector (and Lyn’s!) daughter so a central point of this is her being fucking pissed about her rights and strengths being trampled
I’m not getting to the reveal about Etruria yet but, oh boy, that’ll be fun.
oh wait it was in chapter 7 before we even get Lilina ROY you can’t just hand over other people’s homes to be your political leverage without even consulting them dick
Man I love that Roy just fucking gave Ostia to Etruria like……..he shouldn’t even be able to do that since Ostia is under Lilina’s control who do you think you are???
Lilina really ought to have been given a bigger role in this game.
cowards, the lot of you. Lilina would grow to be taller than Roy and y’all know it
I wanted to adapt Lilina’s outfit to Lano Canon ™ but I forgot that I don’t have a maroon marker (or a teal one for that matter) so…just another Lady Ostia getup I guess.
I assume Lyn would wear a similar cut of bliaut but over pants instead of a skirt. Maybe I’ll get there. Maybe I’ll even draw the whole family but..maybe not.
Aka part 1/? of my just rewriting FE canon to make Lilina the main character (and also Sue). There’s a lot more I have planned but idk when I’ll get to it so I’m putting this up now.
Takes place at the end of chapter eight. 898 words.
At first Lilina didn’t believe her eyes. What would Sue be
doing here, in Ostia, so far away from her home? It was entirely improbable
that a girl Lilina had not seen since she was eight years old would suddenly be
here, leading a horse through the long hallways of Ostia Castle, but that is
what it seemed. She hurried to catch up.
“Sue?”
The other girl turned around. Improbable or not, it was Sue.
She looked oddly the same as she had last time, though a good deal taller. “Lilina…I
didn’t expect to see you.”
Despite what had happened, Lilina almost laughed. “This is
my home,” she said instead, although she knew that Sue had not been to Ostia
before, and wasn’t even certain if Sue knew, really, who she was.
Sue shrugged awkwardly, causing the bronze scales of her
armor to clink together. She said nothing.
Conversation stalled, and an awkward silence formed. It had
always been like this between them. They were not naturally compatible,
perhaps. Or maybe Lilina was simply no good at making friends. In the past,
they had merely separated to play their own games while their parents talked.
Now though, Lilina refused to give up.
“Strictly speaking, I don’t think my…I don’t think father
would have appreciated horses in the halls,” she said, gesturing to the elaborately-tacked
horse by Sue’s side. It was a joke, of sorts, ruined by an up-welling of
emotion. Not that she was particularly good at making jokes anyway.
Sue gave an embarrassed glance at the horse, which was
currently eyeing a nearby wall-hanging with suspicion. “I am sorry about your
father,” Sue said. “He was a great warrior.”
“He was,” said Lilina. Of course Lord Hector was a great
warrior. Was. Had been. It hadn’t helped him in the end. Her mother had been a
great warrior too, for all the good it did.
Lilina scowled. It seemed everyone in Roy’s hodge-podge
force had expressed their condolences. But she did not want to think about her
father, or his death. She wanted to be doing something. No one seemed to realize that, not even Roy, who knew her better
than anyone.
Sue rubbed a hand on the back of her neck. “Can you show me
the stables? I don’t know where they are.”
“Oh! I can do that! It’s-” Lilina paused, trying to think of
the most horse-friendly route. “I think we should go that way.”
Ostia castle was not in good shape, and Lilina despaired
slightly as they walked. She had studied battles, and fighting, and strategy,
but she had never seen one in person before. Blood she might have anticipated,
but not the sour, metallic smell of it soaking in and clinging to everything.
Nor the other smells of death, or the persistent buzzing of flies already
finding their way to the dead. There were scorch marks from magic, chips in the
stone from metal weapons, and in one case a wall had been knocked through
entirely. Rooms were standing open, precious items had been burgled.
To be fair, Lilina was not in much better shape. Her bliaut
was wrinkled from days of captivity, and now soiled and torn in several places
from the fighting. She had lost her headband, and her hair was in desperate
need of a brushing. Utterly unsuitable for Lady Ostia. Utterly unsuitable for
going with Roy.
Lilina looked back at Sue, but whatever words she was going
to say died in her throat. Sue was paler than she should be, and clung to her
horse’s reins as if they were the only think keeping her upright. The horse
snorted and tossed his head, eyes showing more than a bit of white.
The easiest route to the outside was the same one which Sue and
the others had fought their way through, not so long ago.
“Over here,” Lilina said, simply, taking a side hall that
would be longer and more inconvenient, but also less gruesome.
They walked in silence for a short while, with only the
muffled clopping of hooves on carpet to accompany them.
“It’s different, when you’re fighting,” said Sue. “Mother
Earth and Father Sky, all those people…all those lives. Not at all like shooting rabbits.” She paused. “I dislike it but…I’m done running. I shall fight for
my people.”
“I knew them,” Lilina said. “The guards, I mean. I knew them
all. They served my family for so long…how could they do this? Why did they-” a
few tears ran down her cheeks and Lilina scrubbed at her face with one arm to
get rid of them. There wasn’t time for tears now. Whatever the reason, the
betrayal had happened, and now she was left alone to pick up the pieces. That
word, alone, kept surfacing in her mind no matter how many times she quashed
it. “There’s much to do before we leave, isn’t there?” she said, forcibly
turning her thoughts to the many, many tasks that awaited her. Tasks she needed
to get done quickly, if she was to go with Roy when he left. She had no
intention of being left behind again.
“Do you want help?” Sue asked.
“Help would be appreciated,” Lilina said, pulling up short
next to an unassuming wooden door. “But first, the stables.”
Sue nodded her assent as Lilina opened the door. They
stepped together into the sunlight.
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