Seriocity

The final bell rang and Morgan looked up, shaking his head. This entire academy setting was nothing to him. It was droll, boring, and tedious. There were a lot of interesting things going on here, but even so… He was well beyond the ability of any of these people. He was pretty sure he could even outstrip the Knights of Seiros with how they were. They were good, but they hadn’t known the decade-long conflict that had consumed his generation. They no doubt had top-notch training, but people wouldnevermatch up to the real-world experience that had shaped him, his sisters, and his friends. There was nothing in the world that could doanyof that aside from war itself… Apparently, there had been some sort of conflict with the land called Brigid but he didn’t know anything about it right now. He closed his book and put it into his bag, looking at Lucina, Miran, Seren, and Owain. “Let’s get some food,” he said. They all nodded and they headed out to the cafeteria. Of course, most of the students gave them incredibly wary looks and did their best to stay away from the Ylisseans. He didn’t quite understand how and why these people were so xenophobic. Then again, it wasn’t like he’d really had the ability tolearnto be xenophobic. They had had to takeeveryoneunder Grima. Even the lowliest soldier, if they were Plegian, Feroxi, Ylissean, or from further abroad, was accepted if they could fight. Unfortunately, it had ended up with a bunch of child soldiers in the end… Chrom had been killed by Robin, and Robin… Well. They bore Grima’s bloodline. They entered the cafeteria and got as much food as they knew they could handle which…really wasn’t a lot. Between him, Lucina, and Miran, they ate enough for a normal person. Going from the campaign under Grima, to having to find Lucina and the rest of their friends, and then to the Valm campaign… Yeah. Not a lot of room to learn to eat normally. Food had been rationed in the Shepherds and Morgan was all too familiar with rationing. Honestly, even the Shepherd rations were larger than what they got under Grima. The fact that there wasso much food herereally did astound him. He knew he ought to try to eat more, but his stomach just wouldn’t accept anything further. They found Cami, Takumi, and Oboro and sat down near them. Cami smiled. “Hello, Morgan-san, Lucina-san, Miran-san.” “Good evening to you too, Cami-san,” Morgan said, dipping his head. “Who are your friends?” “Seren, my sister’s retainer, and Owain, our cousin…and his wife.” Cami blinked before chuckling a little bit. “We have some similar situations back home in Hoshido and Nohr. My brother, Xander, married my retainer, Felicia. Akucha got pretty close to Flora but…” Morgan raised an eyebrow at the weird name. “...Akucha is what I call Takumi.” “Ah, I see.” T-aku-mi-chan. They used the same honorifics as Mizuki from Chon’sin so he could put two and two together. It was odd that Hoshido’s culture seemed so close to Chon’sin’s. But it was one of those things that was probably best not questioned. If he did, he’d probably drive himself absolutely mad. Worrying about things crossing worlds probably wasn’t worth it. It would just drive him absolutely insane, and he didnotwant to drive himself insane. A lot of things were best not questioned even though hewantedto. “So what are your plans for tonight?” Might as well make light conversation while waiting for the night to fall. No reason to be rude about things. Though the lack of general reaction from the Fódlan natives would make learning here hard… Theyreallydid not want to interact with anyone in the Iris Warblers, it seemed… “Nice ta meetcha.” Owain grinned and gave a two-fingered salute to Cami with a chuckle. “Yeah, getting Seren to back down on anything is a nigh impossible task. She used to be a soft, sweet girl, but then her father’s stubbornness came out.” He grinned at the brown-haired woman who rolled her eyes. “Princess Lucina willalwaysbe my princess even if I’m related through marriage.” Seren folded her arms and let out a ‘harumph’ noise. Yeah, typical Seren. She could be soft and sweet sometimes, but the fight against Grima had hardened her, just like it’d hardened the rest of them… Owain seemed unaffected, but he knew better. He still kept people at a distance. None of them liked getting too close to anybody because they’d all lost way too many people. Not to mention the horrible night that Robin had come back and given Falchion to Lucina… He still remembered that night all too well. “That’s perfectly fine if that’s what you want to do,” Cami said with a smile. “I released Flora and Felicia from my service because things weren’t much better for them than they were for me.” The smile faded but nobody said anything else. Yeah, he didn’t want to push her because they’d really just met. It wasn’t fair to push somebody to talk about something they didnotwant to. It was perfectly understandable. Cami’s eyes spoke to a woman that had been throughrelentlesshardship like them, though her softness didn’t speak to unrelenting war. She had clearly been througha lotin her own right. “I have Jakob and other people that I’ve brought into my court to be retainers… I didn’t need them anymore.” Her tone did speak of missing them, but at the same time…something had clearly happened there. “I’ve never had retainers,” Morgan said, “so I wouldn’t really understand the bond. Idon’tneed people to protect me or anything like that.” He took a bite of dinner. He was strong enough to protect himself and his sisters. He was Exalt so he really should’ve had retainers, but he chose not to. A lot of the other kids their age had been nobles of some regard, so it wasn’t like he could pick and choose from them. Not that he’d want them to be retainers anyway… He probably could’ve had Naye as his retainer, but she didn’t have the temperament for it really… She was so skittish and wanted to bedonewith violence. His heart tugged a little bit. He missed her deeply even if they hadn’t been apart forthat long.He would go down and spend the night with her tonight. He felt bad for leaving Lucina and Miran, but he didn’t want Naye to think he’d abandoned her. It would just bereallyhard to balance out school life with spending time with Naye… Especially since they were going to have to travel for these stupid training exercises. He would have to leave her alone for a time and not see her in order to keep up with the humdrum of school life. He really hated it here honestly, but there wasn’t much he could do about it… It was the best way to learn about Fódlan and potentially make bonds with people. “I’ve always had them… It feels odd to not have any here with me, but I didn’t want to make a fuss about being foreign royalty in Fódlan. I didn’t want to make it seem like I’m above them when I’m really not… Even royalty eventually bleeds scarlet and decays into the ground.” There was…something behind those words, something more, but he wasn’t sure what it was. She was definitely hiding something but again, it wasn’t like he could just start pressing her for details. There would beplentyof time to get to know her and hopefully learn details about what had happened to her. “So why is Oboro-san here if that’s how you feel?” He looked at Obor who was talking to Takumi and Lucina. However, her name made her look over. “That’s more on Akucha. They’re best friends. They’ve been through a lot together.” “Ah, sounds like Seren and Lucina then.” He didn’t press for any further details since, again, not his place. Seren and Lucina were definitely best friends despite how Seren acted much like her father had to Chrom. Granted, all of their generation had been through far,fartoo much and were bonded together pretty tightly. He felt bad for leaving, but the line of succession would have gotten messy if they had remained… Owain justcould notleave Seren behind, so he’d brought her when they’d left Ylisse. Not that he could blame his cousin. He hadn’t left Naye behind. Perhaps it was selfish, but he really did love the little Manakete. “You all certainly have been through a lot too,” Cami pointed out. “Too much,” Morgan agreed. He wasn’t sure what to do or say really… He didn’t want to talk about it. The past timeline was dead and gone. Grima had utterly destroyed Ylisse and the entire world… He felt beyond guilty for abandoning their people, but what else was he supposed to do? If they stayed, Grima would’ve killed them too. They had managed to prevent the Fell Dragon from rising again even if the sacrifice had been steep… Thankfully they’d found Robin a few months later when she’d come back. She still didn’t have many memories from before the war, but it was better to have her back than not. Especially for their younger selves. He sighed internally. Yeah, that was a whole kettle of fish he didn’t feel like talking about, like,ever. “So what are your interests?” Cami asked, obviously picking up on his distress. “I’m a tactician mostly. Same with mage. I’m awed by how different magic is here. We have to use tomes in Ylisse in order to use magic. I think it would technically be possible to just use magic without them in theory, but in practice, it’s just not something that’s practical. Using the body as a focal point for the magic would put the body under animmenseamount of strain. It doesn’t seem like that’s the case here though…” Takumi nodded. “We do something similar over in Hoshido and Nohr. Nohr uses tomes. However, I’ve basically ‘befriended’ the force of magic and can do things most people can’t.” Morgan raised an eyebrow. “How do you befriend an inert force?” “It’s not inert, at least not over in Nohr and Hoshido. It seems…a lot quieter here. It’s really weird. But I spend so much time out in nature that I know how to listen to the force and make it do things for me that it wouldn’t do for other people.” He sighed. “Honestly, being here in a monastery is hard… I’m used to spending most of my time out in nature… I already miss it. Being on the shipsucked.Nowhere to commune with trees and pegasi.” “Well, it seems like there’s plenty of nature around here,” Morgan said. “There is, but it’s not thesameas Hoshido. It’sdifferent.I can’t do the same things as I could at home.” He frowned. “I know this probably soundssuperwhiny…” Morgan shook his head. “I’m having a bit of trouble adapting to the magic system changes as well. Plus, the fact that magic is based on reason and faith is difficult. I…don’t have much faith, so that branch of magic is pretty much cut off to me. Miran’s a healer, so she’s struggling to get into it. We only use staves for healing in Ylisse. Miran isn’t a fighter; she’s a doctor. Needing to have faith in order to use magic is tough. We have faith in Naga, our patron goddess, but it doesn’t seem to work here quite as well as it might in Ylisse.” “Well, at least you understand… The Fuujin Yumi is still useable though.” Morgan raised an eyebrow. “Fuujin Yumi?” Takumi got under his shirt and took out a little flared circle on a chain. “My divine bow. I know it doesn’tlooklike a bow, but it is. The divine weapons from Nohr and Hoshido can collapse like this for easy carrying. I’m just sticking with plain old bows right now which is…hard. The Fuujin Yumi can do pretty much damn near anything I ask it to since it uses magic arrows instead of normal ones.” “Huh, sounds a bit like Falchion then.” “Falchion?” “See the sword Lucina’s carrying?” He motioned. “…Ah, sothat’swhat I’ve been sensing,” Cami said. Something about her tone was very…off, but he couldn’t pin it down. She was uncomfortable with Falchion for some reason, but he couldn’t be sure why. It was a divine blade, sure, but it didn’t seem to have the same properties as the Nohrian and Hoshidan weapons as Takumi described them. “What’s wrong with Falchion?” Lucina asked. “I just don’t like it.” Cami clearly didn’t feel up to discussing it as she pointedly took several bites of food to occupy herself. Morgan looked at Lucina who shrugged. Who knew what the girl’s problem with Falchion was? It was almost like Naye… Wait. Naye didn’t like Falchion either since it held extreme power to harm dragons. Cami kept her ears covered and was clearly uncomfortable with it. Was she a Manakete? It wasn’t like he could justaskespecially with so many people around. He filed that away formuchlater. “Do you have a divine weapon?” Morgan asked Cami. Falchion got passed down Marth’s Exalted bloodline and only certain members of the bloodline could use it. So far, he, Lucina, and Owain could use it. Miran refused to hold the sword, let alone swing it; she was astaunchpacifist and wouldnothold a weapon or use it to defend herself. She would seriously rather die than to harm another living being in such a way, and possibly even take its life. Cami nodded and motioned to a little pin on her uniform. “Minie is Yato. Xander has Seigfried, Camilla has Kriemhild, Leo has Brynhildr, Ryoma has Raijinto, Hinoka has Suijin, and Takumi has the Fuujin Yumi.” “That…is a lot of divine weapons,” Morgan said. He couldn’t believe how many were in the nations. And they all belonged to royals? That was what it sounded like. And closely related royals at that… How did one family have so many different divine weapons in its lineage? That just didn’t make any sense to him… And Cami hadsomany siblings. “Do you have one?” Cami asked. Morgan shook his head. “I can technically use Falchion, but because of…certain circumstances we went through, Lucina carries it. Technically,Ishould because I was the Exalt, but I let her have it.” He knew that Falchion meanteverythingto Lucina because it was the one last tangible connection she had to Chrom. Morgan had Robin’s coat, though it had seenmuchbetter days… He needed to get a new one as it was tattered and falling apart at this point. But there was no way he could get one in Fódlan unless he custom commissioned the cloth patterns on it and… That wouldn’t be cheap. He did not have that kind of money. So he had it folded up and put away in their closet until he could start earning money. They could’ve been mercenaries pretty easily, but he hoped that coming to the Officer’s Academy might nab them some sort of cushy job somewhere with the royalty. That Elgar character certainly had a job they could do… A coup would be a piece of cake compared to something like fighting the endless war Grima had put them through. Honestly, pretty muchanythingwas far easier than the war they’d grown up in. But he was keeping his options open. He doubted he’d land a job with the Church, considering how much Rhea had looked down on them and how she’d treated them… Plus, following orders as a knight wasn’t his strong suit. He was a tactician and aking,not some mindless fodder for the nobles and archbishop to push around and treat like he meant nothing. If worse did come to worst, though, they would take up the mercenary life because fighting was what theyknew.Maybe they could find a band of mercenaries to join and such. But a year was a long time. Who knew what relationships they could forge between now and the end of the year? Hell, Cami could probably use some help somehow if nothing else panned out. “You look like you have a lot on your mind,” Cami commented. “Always do.” Morgan shrugged. His mind always ran like crazy with possibilities and trying to predict the future. Unfortunately, with as unpredictable as this was going to be, he had no way of knowing when or how anything would play out. He just… There was no tellingwhatwould happen between now and the end of the year. There weresomany people here that they could end up gelling with and being treated well. He had no idea. There were so many variables at play here evenhecouldn’t pull out what was going to happen most likely. “Yeah… I can definitely feel that one.” Cami sighed. “Running a kingdom so young isnoteasy.” “No, it’s not,” he agreed. “And then being reduced to astudentafter having been a king or queen?” He shook his head. Honestly, they had more in common that he realised. She was a Manakete… He should introduce her to Naye at some point in the future. Her eyes were warm, crisp, and clear, though he could see the obvious pain behind them. She’d obviously been through hell in her own right. He wondered what and how, but that would (maybe) come with time. They barely knew each other now. Cami nodded. “I’m the White Queen of Hoshido and I went through awarbefore coming here… This place is ajoketo me. Wooden weapons? I was usinglive steelwhen I was still a child. Plus, I’m stronger than I look.” Morgan nodded. “Same. It doesn’t look like it, but Lucina and I can take a hit, fly into a stone wall, and thewallis the one that comes out worse for wear. We’ve been through too much war and have been using live steel since we were children as well.” He didn’t want to get too specific, but Cami clearly understood what was up with live steel. They were going to breaksomany of the wooden weapons because they were used to being able to go full force through Risen and even humans with live steel. “It seems like we have a decent amount in common… I’m surprised.” “Same.” There wasn’t much more he could say to that. He was legitimately surprised they had so much in common, coming from different worlds and all. Of course, thehowwas almost definitely different. He doubted she’d been through evenhalfas much war as they had. But she was clearly a war veteran in and of herself which was worthy of respect. This place wasdemeaningbecause he was pretty sure he could outdo most if not all of the teachers here. He wouldn’t even need the counter in order to prove himself. He’d fought for well over adecade.War had forged him into the hardened steel that he was. These children were absolutejokesof fighters. They were soft nobles that had never knowntruehardship in their lives. He still hadn’t really had a chance to talk with Claude yet, though… They’d met briefly at the beginning but hadn’t had much of a chance to talk. But from what he had seen of Claude… A schemer that held others at arm’s length. The curly, brown hair and darker skin weredefinitelynoticeable though. So far, he hadn’t really seen anybody aside from himself and Miran that had darker skin… He thought he could also detect a slight accent from Claude, but it was well hidden. Everyone else from Fódlan had white, flawless skin just like the people of Ylisse. He really wondered what Claude’s story was. He didn’t seem to be from Fódlan at least partially… It was like how Robin had been raised on the Ferox/Ylisse border but was Plegian in terms of blood. However, the three of them considered themselves Feroxi over Plegian. “It’s always fun and interesting when you have things in common with a stranger.” Cami smiled warmly. “How young were you when you started ruling?” “I’d…rather not talk about that. Painful memories.” He said it as neatly and evenly as he possibly could, but it didn’t make remembering any easier… He still remembered the night that Robin had delivered Falchion to Lucina. She had groomed him from his youngest years to take over instead of Lucina. She had never explained what would happen orwhyit would happen, but when she’d come with Falchion… He knew. Heknewthat was when he had to take over for Lucina. Lucina would absolutelydestroyherself if given the throne at the wrong time. Unfortunately, he’d still seen her destroy herself over the fate of Ylisse and such… Thankfully, some help from Robin and Chrom had set her straight before they’d left. But still, they’d left. It was best for everyone if they left. Cami nodded. “All right. You do look like you’ve been through…way too much.” “That’s putting itlightly.” ‘Way too much’ was still too light for everything he and his sisters and the rest of their generation had been through. It had been complete and absolutehell.Fuck, he was pretty sure that the nine hells weren’t as bad as life under Grima. He absolutely had no idea of how to cope with normal, everyday life. It was why they’d left. He always felt a threat looming over him, a shadow over his shoulder. But…nothing was there. Nothing. Everything in Ylisse had been peaceful. Grima had been permanently vanquished and the world lay at peace. Plegia was being rebuilt with the help of Ferox and Ylisse, though with someradicalchanges to its government structure and policies. Slavery had been outlawed because it was a poison that needed to be abolished. He couldn’t believe how nasty Plegia was… Not to mention its treatment of women too… Ylisse was more conservative when compared to Ferox, but even so… Women could still be in high positions of power even if it was more preferred for women to stay and have children. But Maribelle was a magistrate and Robin was queen.Nobodywould stand against Robin aside from Chrom. Sheterrifiedthe living hell out of all the advisors.Nobodycould ‘put Robin in her place.’ Morgan was glad for that… “So what do you do for fun?” Cami asked. Morgan rubbed the back of his neck. “‘Fun’ isn’t something I reallydo.I’ll just say that pretty much all I know is war. Not much time for frivolity in war.” He really didn’t want to say too much about Grima. Even still, he couldn’t sleep very well and nightmares bothered him. Same with Lucina, Mira, Owain, Seren, and Naye. They wouldneverbe free of the nightmares most likely. The sheer amount oftraumaGrima had instilled in them no doubt made it so they wouldneverbe free of a lot of their mindsets and behaviors. Changing how they thought was hard… This school life was so droll compared to what they were used to, but…it was better than sitting around with their thumbs up their ass and not much to do in Ylisse. “Ah, yeah, that would make it hard to do anything fun… But you’re not in war now. Surely that’s allowed you to explore some things?” Morgan shook his head. “I’m just not compatible with the idea of ‘fun.’ Ask Lucina.” “Yeah, no, he has a stick up his ass and can’t really deal well with being off the throne or not being in war,” Lucina agreed. He couldn’t even deny that assessment. He was 100% stiff and the wellbeing of the throne was his primary concern. Barring that, making sure all the soldiers were cared for and dealing with tactics. He’d had all his time consumed by the throne and his mind had molded around it. He just…didn’t know what to do now that he had time on his hands. He flew through his homework without much issue and, considering they didn’t sleep much, it left him with far too much time on his hands. “Well, maybe we can help you figure out what to do.” Cami clapped her hands together and smiled at them. “Do you do anything for fun, Lucina?” “Music is my thing,” she said. “You wouldloveto meet my brothers Xander and Leo! They bothadoremusic. And my cousin Reiko. She’s more of a singer than an instrument player, but she loves music too. She’s really the last person to know the music of Valla.” “Valla?” Lucina asked, tilting her head. Cami sighed. “Never mind. That’s…That’s a long, confusing story and I don’t feel like getting into it. But it’s where I was born at least.” Morgan stored that away for later. What was someone not born in Hoshido doing on the throne? Then again, countries did intermarry for political reasons. But based on what she said, it waswaymore than that. Valla was clearly something she didn’t want to discuss like he didn’t want to discuss Grima. Maybe in due time he’d learn, but for now, he’d just file it away for later. “So you know any music from it?” “No. I’m not much of a music person to be honest…” Cami frowned. Something was obviously bothering her. He didn’t knowwhat,but then again, it probably wasn’t any of his business right now. “That’s Xander, Leo, and Reiko’s thing. I…don’t really have much of a thing due to how I was brought up. I’ve kind of taken up some level of gardening, but that’s not something I do consistently due to the headache of Nohr and Hoshido merging.” Morgan couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. Two nationsmerging?Now there wasdefinitelya story behindthat,but he doubted he’d be learning it anytime soon. If she didn’t want to talk about Valla, there was no way she was going to talk about the two nations merging. They were complete strangers, so it really only made sense she’d have boundaries she didn’t want strangers to know about. Hell,hehad his own boundaries he didn’t want people to know about. He still couldn’t help but beinfinitelycurious about what would make two nationsmergelike that. “Yeah, don’t ask about it,” Cami said, obviously having caught his curiosity. “There are a lot of things Idon’twant to talk about.” Morgan nodded. “I can respect that. There areplentyof things I don’t want to talk about with complete strangers either. But for now…” The end bell for the meal chimed and he stood up, grabbing his tray. They put all the dishes where they belonged and bade farewell to the Hoshidans before the trio headed up to their dorm room.