Fire Emblem On Forums: Mortal Transgressions (IC)

[Swordstar]

Mim reacted instinctively the second she heard the sword. She had no weapons, her bow and arrows upstairs beside her sleeping mat, but it didn't matter. The hand that had been on Lucy's back twisted, grabbing her shoulder and yanking her back. Behind her, safe. No, not safe at all, but as safe as one small girl could make her against a knight. Against Ferdiad... Her brain was still processing everything as she stood as tall as she could, an ant to the tall proud knight. But it didn't matter. She couldn't let him continue forward with that sword.

 

Arms thrust out to her side, chin up high, she stared at the man who so recently had saved her life. She owed him for that, true. But this wasn't a way to pay. She was shaking, afraid that their weak and already fractured bond would be broken by this. But it didn't matter. She knew what he wanted to do was wrong. It had to be. Killing a defenseless girl, even if she had been their enemy... A weak, scared, scarred, trembling girl. A reflection of what Mim could have been if she had been unlucky enough to be born in the circumstances Lucy had been. She was one of the lucky ones, she knew that now more than ever. Privileged. Loved. Everything this poor girl with a broken Mark wasn't. And she couldn't let that continue. She would be a light in Lucy's dark. And to do that, she couldn't let the knight move forward.

 

"If you want to kill her, you'll have to kill me first. Do what you will."

 

There were more words she wanted to say, pleading for him to listen, explaining that Lucy wasn't the enemy, asking him to lay down his sword. But in this moment, faced with the advancing man, that was all that could come out. Arms open, completely defenseless, maybe at least she could slow him down long enough for the others to stop him. She wanted to close her eyes, wait for the impact, but she forced them to stay open, staring him down. This was all she could do, unarmed and helpless against the stronger, taller man. He had saved her before seemingly on the flip of a coin. A second longer and he would have been too late. Perhaps now, this time around, the coin would fall the other way. It was in the air now, the only thing she could do was wait to see how it would fall.

[Zetaark]

Fey being towards the side noticed Ferdiad, and also caught sight of him drawing his blade. While she doesn't know much about Ferdiad or the feelings that drive him, she would think that the situation at hand would lead him to at least pause for a moment. However, it was clear what his aim was, and that nothing in his way was likely to stop him. It was also clear that Mim would do whatever she could to protect Lucy. She's always gone out of her way to take care of the people she cares about, and won't quit even if it kills her. Fey can't help but grin a little at the expected but brave action. Its the sort of thing she expects, and she wouldn't want Mim to be any other way.

 

But she has a job to do. She's here for a reason, and nothing will get in her way either.

 

"Regardless of your personal feelings or thoughts on the situation, I'm going to need you to calm down for a second." Fey growls as she moves between Mim and Ferdiad, axe in hand to stop his charge.

[rokubiraijuu]

A commotion swells, dull noise in the periphery of the fatal silence in his head. There's a flash of purple and teal; a soundless protest, pleading eyes.

 

CLANG!

 

The reverberation up his arm makes him grit his teeth, faced now with a shock of vivid green. Fey's nonplussed and fierce look, the bow of her axe catching his blade. The girl— why is that girl here? He'd sworn himself retribution, and Kane— Kane had promised him he would find what he wanted.

 

"Rrrhh!" Twisting, he shoulders past Fey's parry and throws his full weight against her side to clear her out of his path.

 

Mim, a final, small obstacle. One girl against the typhoon. A gauntleted hand thrusts out, hooks to her shoulder and shoves her aside.

 

Her. Small and stricken. The cloak she wears is still the same as that day. That day. He doesn't know her name. But she had taken his.

 

Steel flashes — a finality.

[RedMageCole]

As time seemed to slow to a crawl, something had struck a nerve with Lucy. Tears began to fall down her face once more— not because of her life flashing before her eyes for her stupid decision, why hadn't she thought that it would be him...? His fury when driving his lance through her brother— who else would have struck with such killing intent? She felt so foolish for not considering it, perhaps it was her fault for being so forgetful despite having taken a backseat to a man's life... And yet, she watched as the snowbird who had been so willing to protect her, and someone who she had minimal interaction with outside of a brief cover-up story before Famine had intervened... she didn't understand. Why...?

 

But she knew it was futile. Her hubris was to catch up with her in this moment. She closed her eyes, whispering...

 

I understand...

 

CLANG

 

It wasn't much, but Ferdiad having to exhaust his energy on Fey and Mim left Kane just enough time to dive around Lucy and parry Ferdiad's block with his knife. It wasn't quite a swordbreaker and it was clear that a knife wasn't going to hold against a sword for much longer, but it would buy him some time— Kane was banking on the idea that someone would quickly intervene as he blocked, an awed Lucy opening her eyes to see one of her main hecklers defending her...

 

"Knight, I won't... pretend... to know why... but Pestilence— Lucy... is willing... to separate from those murderers...!" Kane looked like he wanted to say more, but his grip was beginning to shake...

 

 

"But... He... He has the right..."

[Chevaleresse]

"Phoenix, I can take it from here." She interposed herself between Lucy and the man, drawing Joyeuse and preparing her own parry.

"Knight, this is not you. The most stalwart and honorable among us, and you're attacking someone who won't even defend themselves." She shook her head. "I won't pretend to understand what you're feeling, but this is wrong. No person should be turned away if they are truly willing to atone for their previous mistakes." She didn't speak any more, but the look she gave Ferdiad said all she needed to and more.

[ElfCollaborator]

Lenore was about to speak before what had happened, happened. Before Ferdiad barged Fey out of the way, threw Mim aside and attempted to skewer Pestilence, and was willing to do it even if Kane was in the way.

This wasn't right. Ferdiad was the good one. She hadn't interacted much with him, true, but Lenore somewhat admired Knight, in a way. He lived up to his name.  Lenore could never be so honorable; a thief was never going to ever be as capable as a knight who deserved the name.  And here he was, throwing that all aside for....what, exactly? She didn't know. Knight had disappeared for so long and kept to himself ever since that mission. Maybe it had hurt him more. Maybe she should've checked up on him. Maybe....

The pragmatic side of her wanted to punch him; he was attacking a valuable informant, someone who they could play for intelligence, someone who they could use as a bargaining chip against their enemies. The side of her that had wanted to join Virtuous was torn between disappointment and shock.

 

Enough thinking. It was time to do. Kane was next in line.

 

Lenore processed her options.

 

Ferdiad was a better fighter than Lenore, no questions asked. True, Lenore's code didn't prevent her from fighting people, just killing them, but he was a trained cavalier, whereas Lenore's fighting experience came from bar brawls, jumping her would-be rivals in alleys with traps and other underhanded methods. In a straight-up fight, Lenore didn't stand a chance, so standing between him like some kind of wannabe hero wasn't an option.

 

She looks at the remaining person in the room. Lizaveta was a mage; Ferdiad was tough, but magic cared not for your physique. If Lenore could make an opening for Liza, maybe she could subdue him....

Too risky. I'm not trying to kill him. Just get him away from Kane.

 

Of course, making an opening wasn't a bad idea. They outnumbered Ferdiad. It would take the pressure off Kane and Justine. And she was running out of options.

 

"Knight, think fast!"

 

She does the only thing she can do and picks up a nearby mug, before hurling it at Ferdiad's head. It wasn't going to hurt very much, or indeed really stop him. However, that would buy Justine and Kane time.

[Powder Miner]

Lizaveta had been still and silent for an awfully long time, now. At first it had been taking in the new information, and calculating based off of it. The King of Perus was consorting actively with Great Merchantry in order to concentrate as much power and wealth into Perus as possible... that made sense. She had thought that Perus' king was basically a nonpresence, but evidently he was just a secretive and scheming one. It figured, she supposed -- and was an instance in which the Manifesto was wrong. Clearly, the aristocracy and merchantry were plenty willing to work together if they could commonly put themselves above others. And the queen of Vini had been the one responsible for its king's death... that was downright funny, in its own way. She didn't care at all about the death of Cyrus himself -- Vini had never been an especially nice place. But she had distinctly been making everything worse for everyone unlucky enough to live in that accursed kingdom... and now Lizaveta supposed she had another weapon that she could use to liberate Vini when the time came. There was an anger in the back of her head, she could feel, but oddly enough, she felt in that moment like she was cool and calm. This was information, and useful information. It was vital that they held onto it as carefully as p--

 

Some of Lizaveta's other lack of movement and sound came from her being frozen in shock as Ferdiad suddenly went on the assault, a scene of violence playing out before her eyes. The armored man was throwing people to the side, advancing, and she found herself simply rooted to the spot. On and on it went, until Kane was struggling to hold Ferdiad in place (and likely going to inevitably fail, for that matter), with Justine standing in his way and Lenore... throwing a mug at him, apparently. She realized none of that was likely to work... Kane wasn't strong enough to stop Ferdiad, and she didn't think Justine was either, not with him being so tough. And the mug... well, that was barely worth mentioning. She didn't think her own magic would actually be able to solve it... she'd seen Ferdiad fight mages, and he was tougher against her spells than she would be against his fists or sword, she was certain of that. And the attempts to talk to him... they felt a little limp, to Lizaveta. Appealing to his better nature... well, Justine had known him for much longer than Lizaveta had, of course, so maybe there was some meaning to it... but the way he was acting didn't seem like something that that would work on. Rage, pure determined rage... that wasn't going to be brushed away with something so simple and optimistic.

 

But maybe she could use words to her advantage. Baldur had once stricken her, after their argument revealed him to be a vile person obsessed with putting people down and with a worldview that matched such, presumably adhering to the same old views about wealth and nobility. She had struck a vicious chord, without at the time even meaning to. Maybe if she could do the same with Ferdiad... her mind raced. She didn't know him well, but she was an observant girl and she had had access to some basic facts. His codename was "Knight", and he very very much looked the part, with full plate armor and hair that clearly spoke of grooming. He wasn't very creative, either -- she felt like he was probably in fact a very literal knight. He had seemed to have some familiarity with Ceda, and vice versa... she didn't know the details of it, but it made sense that he was probably a Knight of Ceda. He had left the group after the king of Ceda had been murdered, and now he was trying to murder one of his murderers... well, it did not take a genius to reach a conclusion here.

 

She ran up to Ferdiad, and shot a look at Lenore as she did, an intense and somewhat panicked jerk of her eyes outwards to try to beckon her to get Pestilence away, to GO. 

 

And then she started screaming at Ferdiad, with an anger that she realized hadn't been quite as distant as she'd felt it to have been.

 

"ARE YOU INSANE? ARE YOU, PERHAPS, FOOLISH?"

 

Her words came out a mile a minute, as nervousness, anger, and no small amount of hidden fear drove them.

"We literally COULD NOT ASK for a better source of information! We COULD NOT ASK for a better way to right the wrongs of Perus! We COULD NOT ASK for a better way to know how to help fix the broken kingdoms of this continent! AND WE SURE AS SHIT COULDN'T ASK FOR A BETTER WAY TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOUR KING, COULD WE?"

"BUT YOU DON'T SEEM REAL INTERESTED IN THAT, DO YOU? Do you WANT to keep your queen safe from those of Gul who ordered her assassination and SENT AN ARMY to try to conquer Ceda? Do you WANT to make sure that they don't get away with it? Do you WANT to understand how to deal with it?"

 

She took a deep breath, and now she screamed at him at the absolute top of her lungs, jabbing a finger in his face, even if that meant hurriedly dancing backwards to keep up beside him.

"OR IS IT, MAYBE, THAT YOU THINK THAT KILLING HER AND GETTING RID OF ALL OF THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT COMPLETELY FAILING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE?"

[rokubiraijuu]

The dagger flashes in to parry his blow, and Ferdiad stares at the head of bright yellow that stands behind it, stands against him. Kane... Kane, too? Shock slowly bleeds out from widened blues, replaced with something much stormier. You promised me. It was the only reason he had accepted the offer to come back. Rancor builds like a venom behind his rib cage, its acidic growth slowed only by the strident interruption of Justine's voice calling out to him. Stalwart? —Who won't even defend themselves? He refuses to let his attention flicker to the hints of the purple-haired girl still cowering in the back.

 

Attacking the defenseless?

 

It doesn't matter. She is— His grip tightens around the hilt of the blade, weight bearing down to crush Kane out of his way if he must.  But a sudden mug bounces off his head, its dull collision startling him, though the tenderness of a bruise beginning to form is outweighed by the screeching that carries on in his ear as a small, red form rounds to stare him in the face, expression twisted and accusing.

 

—THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT COMPLETELY FAILING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

 

He barely recognizes the overwhelming pressure that rises faster than he can manage it. In a sudden fury that erases sound and sense, Ferdiad whirls around.

 

CRASH.

 

Wood shrapnel flies in every direction as what looks like one side of the kitchen table detonates. As the shreddings pelt faces, hair, clothing, Ferdiad stands like a live volcano to Lizaveta, his face bearing a look perhaps never once worn there before. A deep gouge splits the wooden table behind her where his blade had slammed down, deliberately a foot or two shy of the small mage.

 

" ... You know nothing." It doesn't even sound like him. But he recognizes when he has lost the upper hand. The momentum here has slipped from him and into those of his alleged allies who stand in his way. He turns fiercely back to Kane.

 

"Will you defend her," he asks in a tone that will tolerate nothing but a simple answer. "Yes. Or no."

[RedMageCole]

The storm continued to rage in the house, Kane determinedly pressing his knife against steel out of desperation— his eyes were filled with doubt, an inkling of guilt as he indeed knew that he was breaking, and yet a resolve that would not allow a chance like this to be exposed. His arms began to weaken, but just as it seemed too late— the rest of the team began to cover for him. Kane caught his breath— Lucy only watched as to... what was happening. If Kane was filled with doubt and guilt, it was nothing compared to the torrent of emotion that Lucy had been experienced. Both waves of pain and waves of hope crashed against each other, battling for control over her fight or flight responses. Arthur had all but backed away— he wasn't sure of what he could even do in this situation. Kane looked fiercely back into Ferdiad's eyes after breaking his eye contact with Lizaveta and Ferdiad— too late to stop what might have been a murder right then and there. But before he could answer—

 

"No!"

 

Kane didn't even turn around to face her. Though doubt had previously existed— Kane was never one to go against the majority.

 

"Yes. Whether you're willing to hear her out or not-"

 

"You don't know what we've done to him...! He has every right to..."

 

"You'd beg for your life to be taken?"

 

"I... I can't stand watching you all fall apart!" Tears began forming in Lucy's eyes, but a resolute expression burned behind them. "You all... You all showed kindness to that dancer and saved her life! You were willing to throw yourselves in the path of my brother's arrows or even sacrifice yourselves just to try and dissuade him! Why is it fair for me to show up and- and expect you all to accommodate your enemy...!? You're a team and my presence- it's making you all fall apart like this! If... If I need to die to- to make you all work well together again, I... I'll accept it... I just need to say... one more thing... L... Lucifer... L-Lucifer... That's... That's my brother's name. Lucifer Belial. Now that you know that... Please... I've accepted my death, there's nothing else that I can do... so if my death will bring any sort of end—"

 

"Stop," Kane cut Lucy off. "Your death isn't going to bring tensions down, even if what you're doing is assisted suicide— don't you see that Snowbird cares about you as more than just a prisoner or source of information? The tension won't die with you, Lucy, it'll only continue to grow." Kane's breathing steadied as he focused his attention back on Ferdiad. "What I promised you was your chance at revenge against the Icons of Sin. I won't go against that and tell you something like 'killing Lucy won't solve anything'— you know yourself better than anyone else. However, from a practical standpoint, Lucy may very well be the only lead we will ever have to the King of Perus aside from combing every damned building in Perus for a glimpse of the Relic, and by extension the rest of the Icons of Sin— three ruthless killers pushing around a girl to aid in their assassinations working under said king. For that, I hardly consider Lucy a member of the Icons of Sin anymore. But if that will not dissuade you... then my final answer is still yes."

[Shauntaro]

Sigh

Oblivious to the indoor commotion, Shin expels sweat and a sigh in response to Baldur's questioning. His suddenly tired eyes dart around before looking at the man next to him.

"Yeah.. I just thought it'd be about that time.. y'know?" He says as he nervously readjusts the knot on the sack laying on the floor nearby.

"...Is there something wrong with that?"

[Aurorix]

"N-... no there's nothing wrong... It's just... I've never seen you practice any sort of personal hygiene with your own in initiative. Its a surprise to say the least, a pleasant one." Baldur paused for a moment he thought he heard some sort of noise coming from inside. Eh, it was probably Kane setting up breakfast. He took another sip of tea, before glancing back at Shin. Something about how he was washing his clothes erked the butler, the very minor things he wasn't doing. It was so inefficient. He started tapping his foot to try and ignore it but he couldn't stop himself.

 

"Shin, are you sure you know how to wash your clothes? Do you need any pointers?"

[Shauntaro]

More sweat starts to appear on Shin's face. Let's. Let's just say it's been ages since Shin had the idea to do any cleaning up, especially laundry. But hey the guy can fashion tools out of almost anything in he can forage, so washing clothes can't be anything too much more difficult. Can it?


"Well.. I guess it has been a ..long time since I've done it. But I think I should be able to do something as simple as this...?"

Finishing up the knot on the sack, Shin moves closer to the wash basin.

"I've got the laundry here, in the water. I'm just letting the clothes soak in for awhile." In the wash basin, piles of clothes (including the bloodstained ones from earlier), bits of his light armor, his gloves and his footwear can be seen.

[Aurorix]

"Are... Are you... Are you fucking kidding me right now!?" Baldur couldn't hold himself back from that one, even if he wanted to try his hardest. He pinched the bridge of his nose trying his best to calm himself down. He took in a couple deep breaths...

 

In .  .  .  . and out

In .  .  .  . and out

In .  .  .  . and out

 

Phew alright, Baldur took off his gloves and rolled up his sleeves. He made his way over to the man and his basin, dragging a chair along with him. He glares Shin straight in the eyes,  "Listen, I'm going to teach you how to do your own laundry and you better pay very VERY close attention while I show you. Got it!? Good!" Before Shin could respond Baldur started tossing the soggy armor, boots, clothes at Shin's chest and into his lap and generally only leave very few clothes in. He stopped when he came to a particularly ragged green cloak? He could only assume what it was since its ragged and looks like its been through hell and back,  "Do you even take care of your clothes? Look at this. What even is this and what did you do to it?"

[Shauntaro]

"Oh. Okay." Shin says in response." Despite the angry tone of Baldur's words, he was trying to help Shin, it's nothing he expected, but definitely nothing to complain about. Shin does as told and watches Baldur with as much focus as he can bring up.


"The ..cape thing? To be honest, I don't even know what it was supposed to be.. It's the only thing I had left since I can remember. I think it's tattered beyond repair at this point, so throwing it away would be the normal thing to do.. but..." Shin puts his hand to his head, as if experiencing a slight discomfort. "I feel like I should keep it with me."


"But I've tried to patch it up, of course..! But doesn't matter how much I try to stitch itself back together, if the original pieces aren't there.. nothings gonna help much." Shin says as his lonely gaze continues to rest onto the weathered piece of green fabric.

[Aurorix]

"Since you can remember? Seems a bit big for something a child would wear." The butler examined the 'cape' more thoroughly. Yep there are patches in it alright. Not even the same shade of green fabric either, and these hand weaves... they're all over the place. The patches aren't even flat and are scrunched up in some locations. What a shoddy job. Just starring at it infuriates him to no end. Buuuut... if even Shin recognizes something that this needs to be thrown away but kept it anyways... It might be possible, but damn it'd take a lot of work. Turning his head back towards Shin, Baldur asks,  "Is this thing really that important to you?"

[Shauntaro]

"A child? That's- ..No no, I.. only have memories of the past few years. I can't remember anything from before, aside from my name.."


"Though, I.. I've never told anyone this.. have I..?"

 

Upon hearing Baldur's last question, his expression sharpens.

He couldn't place why at all, but he answered with a tone more serious than others would be used to.
"Yeah. It is."

[Aurorix]

Is this some kind of joke? Is Shin really pulling the amnesia card? He has got to be making this up right?

.

.

.

Although, why would he use that excuse on something as mundane as this? Shin also doesn't seem like he'd be a good lier either, even if he tried to be. Whether he was lying or not, his conviction to his last question was proof enough that this was indeed important to him... somehow.  "Ugh, I can't believe I'm about to do this..."

 

With his palm on forehead, his thumb and fingers both latching onto the temple on their respective side of his head, he shook his head before letting out a sigh,

 

"Give me a week." The butler spoke plainly,  "I can't guarantee anything, but I can at least attempt to restore it to what it once was. It probably won't be perfect either but it'll at least be better than its current worn out state."

[Shauntaro]

"A week..? What are you-" he says as his tone of voice grows continuously more intrigued, oblivious to any looks of suspicion that Baldur may have expressed.


"Baldur, a-are you saying that you can...-" his words lightly tremble.

[Aurorix]

"Don't make me spell it out for you, and don't get your hopes up either." He retorts quickly and sharply, "Healing magic can do more than just heal gashes and broken bones. Compared to that, mending a simple mound of cloth is nothing. Though I suppose I will need to go buy more fabric to replace all the lost bits..." He mumbles that last bit before dunking it back into water bucket.  "Either way, we need to wash this thing. I'm not about to spend multiple hours working on something that smells and feels like a rat heap. Now pay close attention to how I do this..." Baldur's eyes quickly dart around on the nearby floor before turning back to the archer,  "Shin... Where's the soap bottle?"

[Shauntaro]

"Oh.. okay. Well.. thank you. I didn't know that was possible, but It'd mean a lot to me." Shin continued to watch intently until he heard the words  "Shin... Where's the soap bottle?"


"Well it should be around.. I just put the clothes in water for now, see?" He says, nervously.

 

[Aurorix]

Baldur clasps his hands together and hangs them out in front of him completely baffled by what he's hearing,  "You're supposed to pour the soap into the water to clean with it."

[Shauntaro]

"I-I know... I will in a bit..." He says as more sweat stats dripping from his forehead.

[Aurorix]

"Oh really? Well then, start scrubbing your clothes and see if they smell any better." He scoots over to the side nudges his head towards the basin to beckon Shin over.

[Shauntaro]

"A-Alright.. I will!" Shin takes hold of a brush and starts diligently (somewhat) scrubbing a piece of clothing within the basin. After much futile effort, Shin puts his face closer to the basin to smell any changes.


"I.. I think I see the problem.."

[Aurorix]

"OH DO YA!?" Baldur resisted the urge to furiously shove Shin's incompetent head into the water of the basin. It was a difficult task but he somehow managed it,  "Just... go get some soap from inside. There should be soap in the pantry..." He grumbles before going into a sigh. This man really is hopeless isn't he?