Oh hei, a chapter. Almost done the main part of the story that I planned to write about, but I don’t plan to call THE END on the next chapter. I’d like to leave it open, so that if I have other Lyn/Ceniro ideas, I can put them here instead of starting new stories. Although they’ve been trying to tell me this one story idea… I think I should write Star of Bern first, before seeing about other spin-offs, especially original ones involving the Wind Warriors. ; )

 

Don’t Leave Me

It was a grey, cloudy day – but every day was a grey cloudy day on the Dread Isle. We’d reached the Dragon’s Gate unchecked, and now Nergal’s last artificial army was deployed against us. Nils was back with us at last, resolving to continue on in Ninian’s name, and warning us about Limstella, Nergal’s strongest morph, who commanded this army.

I was at the head of my knights, the pegasus sisters claiming the skies above, and Nino, Jaffar, and Canas accompanying us. The air was cool but not cold. I looked at the distant black-cloaked figures of morphs and smiled my hunter’s smile. With the calm voice in my ear and the Mani Katti in my hand and my friends behind me, nothing could stop me here.

The situation was perfect. Eliwood and Hector had resolved to finish this mission without any more civilian casualties, and Ceniro and I were backing them up fully. Out here, there was only them and us. No others to protect or get in the way. All we had to do was destroy the deadly, beautiful, inhuman creatures. Not the smallest order we’d ever been given.

Ceniro had divided us into three groups to sweep through the three valleys up to the Dragon’s Gate, setting me at the head of the northernmost one. I gave him a kiss on the cheek before I left, just to see a flash of that smile again, to remind him what we were fighting for, and to promise more after the battle. Hopefully we’d have a bit of a breather to regroup before facing Nergal himself. I was a tiny bit disappointed he wasn’t coming with me, but he was going with Eliwood, who was taking the centre route. He’d be better able to oversee the entire battlefield from there.

Another few meters and we were upon the morphs. I wove around their attacks, slashing and stabbing in return, occasionally slaying one. To slay every enemy I faced wasn’t the goal, not here. But my speed drew their attention, and my sword softened them up for Wil’s follow-up shot, or Nino’s blast of Elfire, or Sain’s heavy charge. I simply moved on, blazing through their lines, the voice in my ear making me feel oddly safe and supremely confident in our victory.

We still hadn’t faced Limstella, the sensible side of my mind reminded me. These morphs were only fodder to slow us down, tire us out before we faced her – and she was only here to slow us down before we faced Nergal. And if we weren’t fast enough, Nergal might only slow us down before we had to face dragons.

But that was all right. That was why I wasn’t fighting every enemy to the death. I’d save my energy and take it out on the man – no, the monster who properly deserved it.

I sidestepped a man wielding a sword much too large for a normal person, baiting him around, getting him to turn his back on where Farina was setting up a run on him. At that moment, I heard an odd noise and a tiny grunt, and my blood turned ice-cold.

“Lady Lyndis!” Kent shouted urgently, and I recovered control over my limbs and jumped back before the giant sword crashed down upon me. Farina shot down and impaled the man and back up to the clouds.

That sound – there was only one sound like it, the sound of an arrow hitting a body full on. And Wil was facing the other way. And it had sounded in my ear.

“Ceniro?” I whispered, my hands suddenly trembling and my heart pounding in terror. What had happened? Was he injured? What if he was dead? Oh, Father Sky, if he was dead, I’d- I’d either collapse on the spot or tear the Dragon’s Gate apart with my bare hands. What should I do? What could I do?

No, we had to keep going, to keep fighting. With this bishop Renault with us, we were stronger than ever. “Ceniro?” I asked more normally. Perhaps I imagined it, it wasn’t a very loud sound, and he would ask “Yes, Lyn?” the way he always did, and everything would be fine…

But all I heard from the farseer’s magic was a confused jumble of sounds, dimmed slightly as the device deemed it irrelevant to us, but I could make out Eliwood’s voice, urgent and frightened, and then Priscilla’s voice, even quieter, also frightened. No, no, no, no.

“Lady Lyn?” Sain asked, riding up beside me. “Do we keep going?”

I looked up at him, swallowed, slapped myself in the face, and took a firmer grip on my sword. “Of course we do. General Wallace! Draw that wyvern rider’s attention before it attacks Nino! Uh, Canas, Fiora needs your help!” I was definitely no match for Ceniro. “…We must clear a space to regroup!”

“Aye, my lady!” Wallace cried to me, and Wil was right alongside him, ready to face the wyverns.

I heard a horrible scream and nearly jumped out of my skin. I didn’t have the luxury to be afraid right now. If Ceniro was screaming, he wasn’t dead yet, right? Teeth clenched, I prayed to Mother Earth, Father Sky, and all the spirits of Sacae that he wasn’t leaving me – us – yet. Ceniro, don’t you dare die. I can’t- I won’t let you. Please. “Ceniro? Eliwood?”

A few minutes later, I finished off an archer and joined my friends in a tight knot in the centre of the valley, my heart still beating fast in a way that had nothing to do with the battle. But now Eliwood’s voice sounded much calmer, soothing, and more of it was coming through. “You need to take a break.”

Ceniro’s voice, hardly audible, cracked and halting. “Th-the b-battle won’t s-stop until Limstella’s d-defeated, and th-then there’s the d-dragons to worry about…”

“You’re not in a condition to get up in either case.”

Maybe they’d hear me now. “Hey! Ceniro, are you all right? Will someone answer me?”

“Yeah,” and now I heard Hector, too. “What’s going on over there!?”

“L-L-Lyn, H-Hector-”

“Ceniro’s taken a severe injury,” Eliwood said, deliberately calm. “He’s all right now, but he’s in shock. Can you hold your sides of the battlefield for now?”

“I can do that,” Hector said at once, but I had to look at my knights first. Yes, we could hold this side for the time being. “Wait- what was that?”

“Return … magic seal,” I heard someone who might be Pent say. “Not … much use … right now.”

“Right,” Hector said decisively, but his voice was fading away, as if he were being slowly Silenced. “So, let’s…”

“Hector?” Eliwood asked of the missing voice. “Hector?”

“I need to…” Ceniro began weakly.

Whatever he thought he needed, it was probably something ridiculous, like to keep fighting when he had just almost died. Not that we didn’t need his commands, we needed them very much. But he had trained us well, and we could… probably… defeat most of the morphs without losing any of our friends. The fact that they had almost got him chilled me to the core for many reasons, but we couldn’t stop halfway now; we’d get overwhelmed and pushed back, even I knew that. So we had to continue, keep pressing on, even without him for a little while.

What he actually needed was someone to help him recover from his shock, and while Eliwood could do that well, he also needed to be up and fighting. Sure, General Marcus could hold the centre well enough, but Eliwood was a fierce fighter and the resistance was fiercest where he was. They could use him badly. “You want me to keep leading the northern side as well, or shall I get Florina to fly me over? I can get Wallace or Kent to take over.” Please say you need me. I want to help you. If you tell me to fight, I’ll fight, destroy those who hurt you, but you’re still alive and that’s more important.

“Can it be Kent?” Sain asked with a side-long grin at General Wallace. Wallace huffed and shook a mailed fist at the green knight.

“I think that would be a good idea, to head over here,” Eliwood answered me. “Perhaps Florina can take Karla back north when she returns?”

Even better. If Eliwood thought he could spare her, I wouldn’t say no. Even if she was brand new to our army, had little rapport with anyone besides Bartre and Karel… and maybe Farina, she was at least my equal with the sword and could easily fill my place in that respect. I turned to Florina.

Before I said a word, she nodded, smiling, and reached down a hand to help me up.

“Go take care of our tactician, Lady Lyn!” Fiora bid me, also smiling.

Sain coughed, grinning, and Wil punched him in the leg.

“Tell him we’ll all keep doing our best, so not to worry about anything!” Nino cried, bouncing on her toes.

“I’ll tell him,” I said. “All right, Florina, let’s go!”

It took less time than I’d thought to fly over the mountains south to Eliwood and Ceniro. We didn’t need the farseer’s guidance to make it in; Eliwood’s white horse and bright blue tunic stood out against the drab fields like a sapphire against mud. He was kneeling, holding a small, shivering bundle wrapped in several layers of cloaks, including Eliwood’s own. Florina touched down nearby and I was down, forgetting even to thank her in my haste, running to his side. “How is he?”

Ceniro hiccuped twice and I put my arms around him, holding him tightly. I could see tear marks down his face, white against the dirt of travel. I wondered where exactly he’d been shot, but I wasn’t going to ask right now. Eliwood finally let go of him and stood. “He’ll be all right. I’m going to go back to fighting.” Good. Go kick their sorry behinds for me. For us. “With Marcus, we’ll handle the tactics for this valley. Don’t even let him touch the farseer until he’s recovered some more.”

We were in perfect accord on that. “I can do that.”

Ceniro struggled a little. “W-wait. J-just a moment. If th-there’s a magic seal to the s-south, H-Hector will p-probably send the mages n-north. We sh-should send some f-fighters s-south to help.”

“I can do that,” Eliwood said to him. “I’ll tell them to keep an eye out for the magic users and protect them until they can defend themselves again, and then go help Hector directly. Will that work?”

“Y-yes.” He struggled some more until one arm was free and pointed at the farseer. “Th-they should be… well… S-sort of around here was where they were wh-when I l-last checked.”

“Understood,” Eliwood said with a strong smile, the smile that let everyone know it was going to be all right. “Leave it to me.”

Left alone, I squeezed Ceniro a little through all the cloaks and put his head on my shoulder, patting his hair. It felt inadequate, and now that I was here I wanted to be off fighting again, but I took some deep breaths and felt the edge start to come off my adrenaline. He didn’t need me jittering all over him, or worse, crying all over him. That would just make things worse. This wasn’t my time to go to pieces. Maybe after Nergal was dead. Or tomorrow. Or whenever we made it back to Lycia, possibly specifically Caelin. But not now.

“I-I’m s-sorry,” he stammered.

“Don’t be,” I said, squeezing him again. “It’s not your fault.”

“Th-then whose f-fault is it?” he demanded, trying to sit up again. He was bringing the hysteria back, and his face was beginning to crumple. His whole body was shaking violently. “I j-just want t-to…”

I let out another deep breath, schooling my face to its very most serene expression. If it was helping me, probably it would help him? “Ceniro. Take some deep breaths. We’re going to do some Sacaean meditation, all right?” Thank goodness I vaguely remembered what Elder Nita had taught me long ago…

“O-okay…”

A burst of orders from Eliwood came through the farseer. “And turn the sound on that thing off,” I told him. I had no idea how to do it or I’d do it myself. “It’s only going to distract you and make you tense up again.” He obeyed. “Come here. Focus on me. Breathe in… Breathe out.”

My voice turned into a quiet chant, eventually slipping into the Sacaean words as I remembered them, and I held his hands as we knelt in front of each other, facing each other. My eyes were closed and when I opened mine, his were closed as well. Good. His tears had stopped and his hicupping was on the way to stopping. He just looked very tired now. I was much calmer now too, and it was easier for me to keep a strong face on now that my heart wasn’t trying to escape my chest.

He opened those beautiful eyes and looked at me. “I think I’ll be okay now.”

I looked at him firmly. “If you’re sure. You still have to take it easy until we find an occasion to sleep.”

“I don’t know if we have that luxury,” he said, looking away towards the north-east where the Dragon’s Gate lay.

I frowned at him until he met my eyes. “I know your giant brain is going to keep going, but I need you to stress about it less. We all do, but I do most of all. No one thinks less of you for taking a wound in battle. In fact, I’m pretty sure half of them are going to congratulate you on it.”

He shuffled self-consciously. “Well… it’s not the first one I’ve had, even for me.”

Really? Now I was curious. He hadn’t been wounded hardly at all during the times I was with him. That time he got axed in the knee, perhaps? …If I took off his tunic, what would I see? …But it wasn’t important. “That doesn’t matter.”

“Can I turn the farseer back on yet?” he asked, looking at it. He wasn’t going to be satisfied until he was involved, was he? “All right, I’ll risk it,” I told him, crossing my arms skeptically. If he showed too much sign of cracking again, I was taking it back.

“Eliwood?” What’s the situation?”

“You sound much better. So I would say the situation is good.” I would agree that it was getting better, although maybe not good yet… but Eliwood had a better head for battles than me, and was actually fighting. I guess I could believe him. “Actually, Hector managed to defeat the magic seal once and for all.”

“Thanks for sending those fighters our way,” Hector said. “Really made a difference.”

“What about up north?” Ceniro asked, which I was also eager to learn.

“Enemies are mostly neutralized,” I heard Kent say, and I smiled at his customary formality. Even though he was quite good friends with Ceniro, he was always so proper in reporting. “Not very elegantly, but neutralized nonetheless. No casualties.” If there had been casualties, he would have said so first, so I had not been afraid of any.

“There’s only a handful of enemies, I think, clustered around the Dragon’s Gate ruins, and of course Limstella,” Nils said. “But you knew that, didn’t you?”

“I wanted to get your opinions as well as the contextless facts that the farseer presents me with,” Ceniro said. If it had been anyone else, that would have sounded pompous. But, in that voice, tired but steadier, those words just sounded matter-of-fact… and that he didn’t have the energy to be concise. “I’m… not going to say very much for a while. Lyn’s orders.” Damn straight. “Carry on. If I have ideas, I’ll tell you.”

“Will do,” Hector said. “Take it easy, buddy.”

He turned the volume down, though not off – was there even an off button? I felt like there wasn’t, especially not with the way it had interrupted us that night in Bern. He sat there a moment and sighed, then turned melancholy eyes and a slight pout on me. “I feel guilty.”

“Why?” I said. “You think Wil felt any less guilty when he had to be taken to the back at Castle Ostia, no matter that he saved Rebecca’s life?” It’s… normal, I think. Move past it. I’ll help you.

“Right.” The corners of his mouth twitched up into a shaky smile. “It’s not about my ego. It’s about keeping everyone alive. Including me. And if I try to take charge while I’m not ready, I’m endangering everyone.”

Bravo! “That’s useful logic,” I said aloud. “Let’s walk in the direction of the Dragon’s Gate. How do you feel about that?”

“Kinda shaky.” Always so honest. “But I can manage walking, I think.”

“Up you get.” I got to my feet and helped pull him to his, helping keep the cloaks over his shoulders. How many did he have right now!? Three? Well, that had probably been necessary, between the shock and the cool air of the Dread Isle. I was starting to get cold myself, my sweat a clammy layer over my skin.

Eliwood probably wouldn’t have left any enemies behind him, but I surreptitiously checked my sword anyway, just in case something popped out at us. If something did pop out at us, the first thing was to knock Ceniro down so he didn’t get shot again. Or drag him out of the way if it was a mounted unit, or flying unit, or magical unit. I wasn’t losing him here, right under my nose.

“Hey, can I have one of those?” I asked, tugging at Eliwood’s cloak. I was getting goosebumps on my arms.

“Oh, yes, of course, you must be cold right now.” He shrugged it off, still a little awkward, and handed it to me. I wrapped it around my shoulders twice and took his hand again. Eliwood’s cloak was rather too long for me to just have on once, and it had been too long for Ceniro as well – Eliwood was tall, and… neither of us were tall. Oh well.

“Nino said not to worry about them,” I said. “She said they’d do their best.”

“I know they will,” he said. “She’s grown so much since we adopted her into the group, hasn’t she?”

“We all have, but probably her most of all,” I said. “It’s like Fiora said, how strong we’ve become. Remember how weak I used to be, when we first met? Normal life will be far too easy after this.”

He quirked a smile. “You were never weak… I think ‘normal’ life will have its own challenges. I don’t think it will be boring.”

“Not with me around,” I said, giving him a pert smile. “I can make sure of that.”

He smiled a real smile then, and squeezed my hand tightly.

 

Nergal awaited us in the Dragon’s Gate, as mad and full of hatred as ever. He tried to hurt us with his words, tried to hurt us by turning the good people of the Black Fang into morphs, tried to send us into despair to make us easy prey.

I wasn’t having any of it. I’d left Ceniro safely outside, and now it was up to Eliwood, Hector, and me, and our most powerful companions, to see this through. I’d give it my all. The man I loved had been saved from death; I’d fight my hardest to keep it that way. He helped us through the fight with the morphs, and was quiet again now, resting, I hoped. We didn’t need a ton of strategy to take down Nergal. I hoped. …He was only one man, no matter how powerful.

Eliwood and Hector had no significant other to fight for – Ninian was dead, and Hector didn’t have anyone especially dear to him in the army at present. Even his brother was gone, Nergal told us – and Hector confirmed it. But they could fight for each other, for the friendship they’d shared for at least a decade and a half.

The Sol Katti blazed brighter than the Mani Katti ever had as we charged towards Nergal. I gave an extra bound as we were upon him, jumping onto Hector’s shoulders and falling on Nergal from above, channeling all my strength into my strike. “You’ve made your last mistake!” Something Ceniro might have said, perhaps, if he was in a cocky mood…

“Death feeds me. Death pleases me. I am the essence I consume.” Nergal cackled and spread his arms wide, his black robe opening like a gate into the abyss in front of us. “You fools will become corpses here, because I wish it to be.”

It wasn’t the abyss of the afterlife opening in front of us… but it was a black magic spell! I was falling into it, there was no way to stop it, my strike would never strike true-

The pain was like nothing I could describe. Like every nerve in my body was dissolving, and all I could do was fall further into oblivion.

Ceniro…

I could hardly form coherent thoughts, but thinking of him, even in the midst of all this, gave me strength. I can weather this.

How?

Because if I don’t, Nergal will come use it on him. He can’t ever experience this. I won’t allow it.

That’s not how, Lyn.

Doesn’t matter. You’re not some weak little girl anymore. You can take this. You can take whatever this madman dishes out and get right back up and stab the rotting hole where his heart might have been once.

Look, you’re so delirious with pain you’re talking to yourself. How are you going to stab anything?

I didn’t have an answer for my internal monologue; I think I was on the verge of passing out. Just hang in there. He needs you to.

Suddenly, the pain eased, then vanished. I cracked open my eyes to see I was now lying on the edge of the room, far away from where I’d been mere moments…? ago. I was huddled into myself protectively and I clambered to my feet as fast as I could, my limbs shaking a little, and I had to turn away as Lord Athos’s spell exploded over Nergal.

When the explosion had cleared, so had my vision and the shaking in my limbs, and I darted forward. Eliwood was closer and beat me to it, but my nodachi struck true this time, leaving a black, bloody mark on Nergal’s already black robes.

Nergal began to cast his doomspell again. Stab him, stab him, stab him! Hector was there, Eliwood was there, we were all in haste to prevent that spell from being used again.

He staggered.

 

That wasn’t the end of it. Nergal was dead, but the Dragon’s Gate had been opened. On the bright side, so bright it hurt to look at, metaphorically speaking, Ninian was alive again, truly alive, I didn’t know how, and I didn’t actually care too much.

Ninian had destroyed two dragons, but a third still remained, just inside the Gate, weakened from her ice spell, but recovering and turning its attention to us… to attack us.

“Any advice?” I said quietly to the side.

“Don’t die?” Ceniro said in my ear. He sounded gratifyingly calm. It was probably he was just tired. I was definitely not calm.

“Not part of my plan, certainly,” I quipped back, fighting back a manic grin. It was entirely possible we could all die here, and I was tired, and banter was funny. By all of Mother Earth’s furies, let’s get this over with before I go mad.

“I have some ideas,” he said, and sent us into a new formation.

My mental health might have been waning, but my determination never did, my thoughts almost annoyingly repetitive. If I die here, Ceniro dies. That can’t happen. Nergal was only the beginning. This is the true fight.

If I had my way, he would never be threatened by violent death. He would never be wounded again, never feel the sickening panic at the reflexive knowledge of incoming pain. Unrealistic, I knew all too well, especially in his line of work. He might be on the front lines less than the rest of us, but today had shown me too clearly that he was as vulnerable as any of us.

But while we were aiming for the stars in the sky, if he was going to keep everyone he knew alive, I was going to keep him alive and in one piece. This I swear by this dragon’s blood.

The dragon died to Eliwood’s blade, terrifying power bursting from his attack. Slowly, we relaxed. I wanted to rush away immediately to Ceniro’s side, but we had lost Lord Athos – not entirely, but he was dying in Hector’s arms. He made a prophecy that I would never forget, but told us to have hope, before he died.

Ninian was to stay. Nils was to go. I hugged him, and he let me, and even hugged me back a little.

We stayed until he could be seen no more, until the light of the Gate faded… and then I began to run, back towards the mouth of the Dragon’s Gate, back to the cloudy daylight and Ceniro. Hector was behind me, clanking away in his heavy armour. I supposed he didn’t want to stay another minute in this place either.

I flung myself at Ceniro and his arms were around me tightly. He was real, he was alive, his heart was beating and he was breathing and he was starting to cry again with his face in my shoulder and maybe so was I, and we would never be parted while it was remotely in my power to prevent it, never, ever, ever.