Guile: The Quality of a Deception...

Summary: We all know Lyn's Tale, the story of a girl from the plains who slays her conniving great-uncle and saves her semi-repentant grandfather. The twists and turns thereof are familiar to us and we sometimes skip over them to proceed to the main quest of Eliwood and Hector versus the Dark Wizard and his pet charizards.

But what if...

Lundgren, user of poisons, were a more crafty opponent? Had more forethought and not so much of a brutish outlook? Could actually foresee the value in waiting for an opponent upon a carefully prepared battlefield?

What then?

Warning: DARK Themes. As with any situation involving murder and politics, (AKA - Lundgren) this work will be housing darkness and evil. It will probably delve down into non-work-safe and non-family-friendly territory. This prologue of sorts is fairly tame, as the tale progresses, the rating will change to reflect it. You have been warned.

~o~

Striding through the aged stonework that comprised the main hall, the armored lord didn't halt upon reaching the entrance to the keep. The guards at the doors hastened to open them, not wishing to incur his ire. Lord Lundgren, the younger brother and assumed heir to the grand estate of Caelin had just heard some unpleasant news. His brother's daughter, once counted as dead to the issue of succession had written her father earlier in the year. For a time, it had not mattered; the old man was set in his ways and refused to even open the letter, though he still set it aside in the pile of 'things that needed attention in the future' that took up space upon his desk. Lundgren had seen that as further proof that having disowned the family line, his brother would pass the canton on to his possession within a few years.

Indeed, since his somewhat recurring illness, Hausen had dedicated much of the daily running of the castle and its subordinate farmlands to the healthier sibling.

Lundgren was careful not to mention that the recurring illness was a carefully laid plot to wrest control of the canton from his brother's hands. Hausen would hardly be able to do anything to prevent it at this point, but one could never be too certain what whim of the gods would strike the death knell to the ambitions that he held dear.

It seemed as though that whim had come upon his brother at last. Confined to his rooms, the lord of the keep had found the letter in his piles of correspondence. Curiousity and regret overcame pride for the moment; Hausen broke the seal upon the letter and read what his daughter had written.

Thus it was that Lundgren had the shock of finding his brother in tears, murmuring about a grandaughter named Lyndis. Hausen demanded that an emissary be sent to his daughter immediately, to request that she visit with his grandaughter.

Without adequate time to craft a response, Lundgren had acquiesced to his brother's demand. Two of the younger cavaliers were handpicked by the captain of the guard and Lundgren sent them out with his brother's reply, bidding them haste upon their way.

Then he had stormed out of the keep to avoid betraying his sudden anger to his brother.

A long ride around the canton served to calm his rage from the pot boiling over to a slow simmer beneath the surface. He could nip this problem in the bud if he only planned correctly. A grand-niece would not be too difficult to deal with, nor would her mother. Hausen had not yet implied that he would reinstate their claims upon the estate and if they were content with their life on the plains, it would be unlikely that either mother or daughter would willingly return to oversee Caelin in the event of his brother's death.

Still, he would have to prepare for scenarios where the unlikely held true

It was much later before he returned to the castle.

~o~

AN: Because good does not always triumph, and evil has its heyday. Good men and women struggle and sometimes don't find the ending that they hope. The premise to this tale: "A smarter Lundgren, a more patient Lundgren and Fire Emblem 7 becomes a vastly different tale, lingering on that final edge of destruction."

As food for thought, remember that many of the character recruitment encounters depended upon the crude assassination attempts by Lundgren upon Lyndis. Temper the foolhardy attempts and the journey becomes much easier, taking less time and with far fewer detours. Such things will become apparent if you follow that line of thought.