Prince of Fire Emblem: Gray Waves

[senselessness]

A princess with a poker face, Yukimura thought, as Yanagi took away the tea cups and retreated to where the rest of his entourage waited near the doorway.

He had open across the small negotiating table a letter from Princess Azura's stepfather, promising him that he would make her marriage as valuable to him as if she were his own flesh and blood. King Garon had a reputation that his own children shrank from, even as they bowed to his every whim. Azura didn't have the same fawning, wincing air as Garon's own children, from what Yukimura remembered of the spy reports. She looked placidly into his eyes.

"You pushed for this?" he asked, bluntly.

"No, milord," said the princess calmly. "Having just returned to Nohr after a long stay in Hoshido, I was as surprised as you."

Was she lying to him? She'd appeared at the gates of his castle alongside a delivery of flowers and wine for the ball celebrating Marui and Lissa's engagement, accompanied by her stepfather's offer of her hand and a ne'er-do-well with an axe as large as his body.

"He's this eager to get rid of you?"

"Or to gain your goodwill," she answered delicately.

Was she lying to him? The timing angered him immensely.

"By sending you here? Customarily, the pleasure of the bride's company is withheld until the marriage has been satisfactorily arranged."

"Your refusal is noted," she said, not without a certain heaviness.

His eyes narrowed. An outright refusal, in front of the man with the axe... his head burned. Could he afford to refuse Garon's offer without at least the pretense of consideration? Was she simply manipulating him into making a mistake?

"I said no such thing," he answered tightly. She inclined her head apologetically. "But my concern is with the engagement of my own princess, which you're interfering with."

She didn't contest his choice of verb, and his blood boiled.

"Like your princess, I am at the mercy of kings," she said. "I mean no disrespect to Lady Lissa."

But do you mean her harm? he wondered. Did Azura mean to displace her? The king's wife was necessarily given more authority than the king's sister. Yukimura didn't want that. He didn't want a wife for his own sake, there was nothing left within him that could love or cherish the princess before him nor any other, and he certainly didn't want a queen, who'd expect to see her own child on his throne in due time.

A queen would displace Lissa in the hierarchy of the court, and an heir would do the same in the line of succession. A perfect sabotage of his failsafe. A waste of Marui's and Lissa's sacrifices both-- not to mention the hints he'd tried to give them during their dance practice for tonight.

He had to play this intelligently-- even if he was starting late. He swallowed back the venom and vitriol he felt for this interloper and, hating himself for the debasement, stood, only to bow to her gallantly.

"Enjoy with us the festivities already planned," he said, more instructing than inviting. "We can talk more when I've discharged the business already in front of me."

"Yes, milord," she said, opaque as an iron wall.

Felicia -- delighted to be visited by a princess of her native land -- quickly escorted Azura and Hans, the axe man, to their lodgings, and Yukimura turned to his friends, pale and glowing with displeasure.

"I want to know why Nohr chose now to do this," he said, "but I will settle for what I should do to them in retaliation."

Comments

[didntaxyou]

Her brother announced her entrance like it was something everyone had been waiting for, and then he called Bunta his brother, which was sweet, but the two of them together seemed to cause a reaction in the audience.

She was supposed to walk across the ballroom, between the parted halves of the crowd, and then join her brother and his people on the dais. There was music, but it couldn't block out the sudden roar of whispers she heard, or the looks of disdain cast toward the royal party.

Most of it square at Bunta.

It wasn't just between the interrupted couples; she saw an elegantly dressed woman leave her dance partner to seek someone else in the crowd, and she looked upset.

Lissa's pace quickened as she neared the end of this gauntlet, and she went directly to her usual place beside her brother, but instead of letting her stand in his shadow where she expected to be, he caught her hand and ceremoniously offered it to Bunta.

Yukimura's other hand cued the orchestra, and the music swelled-- but his voice carried.

"I hope you'll all join us in the next celebratory dance."

[dateddiva]

There was no snare drum in this instrumental, so it was the drummer who accepted her wink and helped her climb down from the stage. A normal songstress might take her break alone backstage, but this girl was here to socialize, to meet people, and to have a little fun.

...The fun came first, however, when Bun's fiancée kicked him aside for that roguish young nobleman who was impossible to read.

Dorothea to the rescue, then! She slid up behind Bun and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Want to take me for a spin so you don't look like a wallflower who just got dumped?"

[breezygoing]

The king wasn't celebrating; indeed, his mind was far away.

The pendant around her neck weighed heavily as she made a snap decision. Her appearance before him disturbed more than just his own plans for his sister... and he'd be a foolish king to ensure her future before his own. Unless he believed that hers was the only future to plan for, and while that was a depressing thought to live with, she was more concerned by what might cause him to think that way.

Her window of opportunity began to close when the celebrated bridegroom suddenly discarded the singer who was actually paid to be here... there was no more time for thought. The sound of water being poured for the musicians came to her ears, and she made her way up to the stage.

Another thing for the people to whisper about, she thought ruefully, before speaking quietly with the conductor. Just a simple melody with strong percussion-- the conductor looked at the king with some alarm, and Azura saw his eyes narrow suspiciously. But he offered a dismissive wave, and the conductor gulped before agreeing to let her take Dorothea's place.

She lifted her hands over head as the music started, and small streams of water seemed to find her, from glasses and fountains outside, following her movements.

Her eyes met the king's.

A game you played, and thought you won...
A family left without their sun,
A mistaken heart, gets torn apart,
Left to see what you've done...