(Fanfiction comes so much slower when you really have no clear idea where you want the story to go. Ugh.)

Once again, the avatar is named Rain. Though he only gets little mentions this time around.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

It was the curse of a long life. Seeing friends wither away as their short human lifespan came to an end, and seeing historical wars and tragedies inevitably repeat. It was what people with such extraordinarily long life would have to see over and over again. Some might have surrendered to apathy as the nations warred time and again. Others might have chosen to live as recluses rather then form bonds with those they would inevitably outlive.

Tiki was not among such people.

The woman was a Manakete, able to live a life that it seemed wouldn't end naturally. Oh, she knew her life could end of natural causes, and it would happen someday, the passing of Gotoh long ago was proof of that. She laid in the bed in her tent, one of the members of the army who had their own tent. She exhibited no interest in rising anytime soon, though the light outside would suggest that the day had already advanced considerably. She took a moment to simply reflect on how the world had changed. Her long life allowed her to see the rise and fall of dynasties and kingdoms, each with their own histories, frequently bloody and short histories. There had been many worrisome events in history, though what was happening right now in the world was probably the most troubling development since the Dolhr Empire of so long ago.

Her long life also meant that all the people who she knew as a child had taken their place in the grave long ago. Her close friend, the Hero-King Marth, had departed peacefully when his time came, or so history recorded it. Tiki had learned that trusting in the books that recorded history could be potentially unwise if the actual truth was desired. Tiki had taken the time to read, and saw that the historians had painted Marth's good friend, Hardin, as a merciless butcher of a tyrant who had been waiting for the opportunity to backstab Marth. History didn't seem to have any interest in noting the circumstances surrounding what happened to Hardin. He was remembered as a monster despite the fact that the four members of Wolfguard had dedicated the rest of their lives to clearing Hardin's name.

As much as it could pain her, quite considerably, to see selfless figures either misrepresented or outright forgotten, she could trust her memory of how things happened. It was a far more reliable thing then the books of yore. A human's memory seemed to falter quickly, but her memories of those now ancient wars against the Shadow Dragon remained acute and clear.

She fought alongside many people then. Then she left them behind as their human life spans came to an end while her existence as a Manakete allowed her to continue on. Now she was surrounded by new allies. In some of them, she saw reflections of the people Marth surrounded himself with. Though it was curious to see that Marth's own descendent, Chrom, did not resemble Marth in terms of behavior and philosophy. If anything, Chrom's own tactician, Rain, was the one who reflected the Hero-King in spirit and behavior. She briefly entertained the thought of what it would have been like if Marth and Rain had met. Two men of two different eras that seemed to be complete mirrors of each other in so many ways.

She entertained the fantasy for a moment longer, then, having thought enough of how the modern time contrasted with her childhood, she rose, one hand clutching her Dragonstone. She moved the flap of her tent aside and left. It was nearly noon, she did love to drag out waking up.

"My lady." Tiki turned at the sound of her name to see Say'ri. The Chon'sin swordswoman frequently acted as a sort of attendant for Tiki. Acting as though Tiki was some sort of corruptible Goddess that needed protection, Say'ri shadowed Tiki like a servant or disciple.

"Am I needed for something?"

"Nay, my lady. I was only standing guard. Someone with foul intent could have easily entered your tent."

Tiki nodded. Say'ri's vow to protect her was a comfort, Tiki would be helpless if she was separated from her Dragonstone, but the woman could stand to relax at times. Tiki was not a Goddess, despite Valm's worship of her, and she did not regard her life as any more important then that of the common soldiers of this army. Yet Tiki never dissuaded Say'ri from the duty she decided to take on. Tiki had grown so used to seeing Say'ri protecting her that she had never seen the woman in a more carefree situation, Tiki was not too old to have her curiosity tickled.

"You spend much time guarding me, Say'ri. What do you do in your restful times?"

"I train with the sword, my lady. I must ready myself to aid this army. I also study politics, Chon'sin will need me when this war finally concludes."

A note of pain crossed Say'ri's features. Tiki felt a needle of regret in having asked the question. The only reason Say'ri would be truly needed by Chon'sin would be because the death of Say'ri's brother left the throne vacant. Had the truth about his circumstances been revealed earlier, Yen'fay might have lived to join them. No one realized that Say'ri was a hostage held in a cage of gargantuan size, but it was what the Valm Empire held above his head.

Perhaps the truth would have been revealed if Tiki had been there at the time. History had a way of repeating, and in the tragedy that was Yen'fay's death she saw shades of an event long since past.

"My lady?" Say'ri asked. Her tone of voice suggested that she had addressed Tiki several times before she responded.

Tiki blinked. "Excuse me. This conversation suddenly made me recall distant events."

"This conversation? How I train in both sword and politics? What memory could that have triggered?"

There was a pause. It was a memory from when Tiki was a young and innocent girl, an event that history did not see fit to record. " Not that. It was the reason why you would even need to train in politics. It was your brother who made me remember." Tiki did not smile, Yen'fays death was not a happy subject, nor was the memory that played in Tiki's mind right now. "An older sibling, forced to work with a immoral force to protect a younger sibling. I saw that very same thing happen when I was physically a child."

A silence suddenly took hold as Say'ri thought about Tiki's words. An incident in Tiki's childhood mirrored what Chon'sin had suffered? She looked at Naga's Voice imploringly.

"There once was a nation called Macedon. It doesn't exist anymore, but the situation its royal family found itself in has strong similarities to Chon'sin's royal family."

"Macedon? The land of Wyverns and Pegasi, long since fallen to ruin?" Say'ri had read about the land. Knowledge about the nation was fairly sparse, there was more knowledge about a trio of Pegasus Knights called the Whitewings then there was anything else about the nation. Curiosity about this alone had Say'ri wishing for Tiki to speak. "Please, my lady. Tell me of this nation."

Tiki could still remember everything, or at least everything she was told, about the hostage situation of Macedon. When she was physically a child, she had become a friend of Macedon's youngest princess, among many other individuals. "Princess Minerva of Macedon was coerced into aiding the Dolhr Empire, who wished to enslave humanity. What forced Minerva to be obedient to Dolhr was the fact that the Empire had imprisoned Macedon's youngest princess, Maria."

"Fie. I heard much of Dolhr in the history books. I know them well enough to know that they wouldn't hesitate to butcher a child." Say'ri dwelt on the circumstances the younger princess was forced through, and then something occurred to her. "How did they capture princess Maria? Surely a young princess would be under the strictest guard at all times."

"By that time, Macedon had already forged an alliance with Dolhr. Yet Minerva's sense of honor frequently led to her refusing orders and betraying commanders. So her brother, Michalis, the eldest of the three siblings, he had become king, gave Maria into enemy hands to force Minerva to cooperate."

"That-" The pitch of Say'ri's voice suddenly spiked, just the retelling of something that happened so long ago caused an unpleasant display of anger. The single, loud word caught the attention of a few soldiers of the army that were nearby. Say'ri turned to see the looks she was getting and quickly quieted her voice before she continued speaking. "Fie on that… craven. To put family into such peril to keep yourself in good graces with tyrants. He's no better then Excellus."

Say'ri had been the one to kill Excellus, the official tactician of the Valm Empire, the one who had blackmailed Yen'fay and caused the man's death. She was confident that Rain was repulsed to think that such a man had the same profession as him. Certainly Excellus was cut of the same cloth as Michalis.

"I cannot speak for Michalis' character." Tiki said calmly. "Maria, who suffered the most for his actions, was also the one most adamant on defending his character."

"Fie, my lady. The youngest would have had every reason to lash out at Michalis. Why would she continue to think well of him?"

"Naivety played its part." Tiki admitted. "Maria desperately wanted to have her family back, despite her elder siblings exchanging deadly blows. She wasn't aware of how unrealistic her idealism was. Though her stubbornness did have results."

"What results were those?"

Tiki looked at Say'ri. Should she…? No. Say'ri lost her brother, a result that could have been easily averted if the truth had been known. Telling her that the Macedonian royal family, whose situation was similar to Chon'sin's royal family, eventually enjoyed a happy ending would be needlessly cruel. Tiki remained silent for several long minutes. "My… memory of this particular event is unreliable." It was a lie, but one that Say'ri seemed to accept.

The Chon'sin woman nodded. "I couldn't begin to fathom how the youngest sibling could have thought well of the eldest. The heartless craven who hands over kin to place himself in a better position."

"Michalis was regarded highly in his nation. Nearly all thought well of him, but especially the military. He was also the reason why Dolhr did not invade and raze Macedon to ashes during the time that the Manakete nation would not be challenged. Though Minerva would have insisted otherwise, Macedon could not hope to combat Dolhr by itself. I would not say that it excuses offering Maria as a hostage and blackmailing Minerva, but he wasn't truly a blackheart."

Say'ri clenched her jaw, struggling to find anything admirable about the man's character. She would have happily chosen death then sit obediently at the feet of tyrants. But she wouldn't have allowed her pride to condemn her nation to death. All the same, she was certain that this Michalis probably had much less altruistic reasons for allying with Dolhr.

Tiki took in a slow breath. "Though the situations were similar, the personalities of the Macedonian royal family considerably differ from those of the Chon'sin royal family. Tell me, what sort of man was Yen'fay like?"

"Fie. I could speak for days on end about that. I took up the sword in an effort to imitate the way he swung the weapon. I meditated with him, trained with him. We were inseparable kin."

As the words continued, Tiki felt herself involuntarily smiling. There was a brief period of time when Say'ri would have said that she hated Yen'fay. Those words would have likely, deep down, been dishonest. Even now, as Say'ri continued on, Tiki could see how much she obviously loved and valued her brother. Even if he was no longer of this world.

Notes of pain crept across Say'ri's face here and there as she described Yen'fay. Though explaining the man might make the wounds on Say'ri's heart become fresh again, Tiki was pleased to see her talk honestly from the heart. When Tiki thought of departed friends, there were so many occasions where she wished she had spoken to them from the heart. It wouldn't be until after her own passing that she could finally speak to so many people that she still missed the company of.

A bittersweet smile came onto Tiki's face as she realized that before long, Say'ri would be among those Tiki would not be able to talk to for a very long time. As the number of people Tiki built friendships with grew, a bit of her old childish enthusiasm surfaced at the thought of the reunion there would be in the afterlife.

I actually presumed that Yen'fay and Say'ri's situation would be rather similar to the Macedonian royal siblings from the moment the two characters were revealed. That of course meant that the 'reveal' of Yen'fay's situation was one of the most predictable plot twists in franchise history. Despite that, Yen'fay was still a decent 'honorable enemy' character. I suppose comparing the Chon'sin royalty to the Macedon royalty was the single, vague goal I had when I wrote this.

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