Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem. I just write about it when I'm bored.

Prologue

The birth of a child was meant to be a loud thing. The screams of the mother-to-be giving way to the cries of the newborn. Perhaps some laughter or more tears as the mother holds her precious baby she fought so hard for. A whooping cheer from the father.

It was supposed to be the beginning of the family.

Not the end.

The room was silent save the labored breathing of the weakened mother and the gentle encouragement of the woman helping deliver the children.

One child, the firstborn, lay bundled in a blanket in the arms of the acting nurse. The edges of the woman's green hair tickled the baby's face but the child lay still.

His heart never beat.

The new mother, with the help of the green-haired woman, held her second child in her ailing grasp. This baby's heart was strong but no sound escaped the newborn girl's lips. She moved, making every motion of a crying child, but was soundless.

The mother caressed her daughter's dark hair, the little bit of motion the only she could manage. "Rhea... my son..." she whispered, eyes the color of deep waters staring at the bundle of blankets in the green-haired woman's arms with an intense yearning. "…I want to see my son."

"They take after you," Rhea complimented, tightening her hold on the stillborn child.

There was no reason to burden her. Not now.

Instead, she reached a hand out to the baby girl, stroking a cheek with her thumb, and drawing the mother's longing gaze back to the child in her arms. "Blue hair, blue eyes. They're all you."

The mother smiled and stared at the baby girl as if she could never see enough of her. Yet, despite her best efforts, the lids of her eyes were beginning to close and Rhea shifted the baby boy, kneeling to support the girl with her other arm. "Rest now. It is okay. I have them," she whispered. Rhea pressed a light, lingering kiss to the mother's hair.

The mother leaned into the touch. "Rhea..." her words were barely more than a breath and Rhea had to hold hers just to make certain she did not miss any, "… save my son."

Rhea did not move except to stare into the deep blue eyes that shouldn't know her son's condition.

"… Please."

Rhea let out a sigh, her lips once again brushing the woman's hair as her eyes closed.

"I will, my Dearest One."

A/N:

This is my attempt at a twins fic. Due to the Alternate Universe aspect of this story, I plan to use canon but not follow it exclusively. Stories like this that I have written previously tend to make use of the Butterfly Effect, starting out familiar and then snowballing into something very different.

In order to minimize confusion (or potentially escalate it), I have opted not to make use of the canon name "Byleth." Instead, Male Byleth goes by the name Balen and will be, more or less, canon to the game while Fem Byleth goes by the name Blaise and has a unique role.

This story will be Blaise and Edelgard centric although I respect all characters and have no intention of bashing anyone. I adore the morally gray so no saints in this story (except the literal four Saints in the Three Houses plot). Also, as you can guess from the above prologue, Blaise is mute so the use of italics within the body of the story is the equivalent of Fodlan's sign language. I've bolded them as well due because the site's formatting making it more difficult to pick them out than say a Word document.

I'm posting the first real chapter along with this one because it's so short so move along now to that and let me know what you think/what you would like to see via review or PM. :)

EDIT: 02-27-20

With the release of the Cindered Shadows expansion, this story has fallen into a slightly more alternate universe than it already was. You will know why by the end of Chapter 1 but I still maintain it is more or less canon with the information for the original release. Luckily, you should know quickly whether you can get past the contradiction with Cindered Shadows.