Chapter Text
Older Sister, Vessel of Grima
Before she lost all her memories of she was, Rufure was born in Plegia.
She was the descendant of a long line of Grimleal leaders and was the first one who successfully born with the Heart of Grima strong enough to become the vessel of Grima. It was symbolized on her right hand, the Mark of Grima.
She had never left Plegia as a baby, as Validar had a tight grip on both her and her mother. This was a bad thing but a good thing in hindsight almost, as she was never to be alone but always with her mother. In secret she was told at a young age, when the time is right they will leave. Those were the words she kept saying to herself.
For seven years in Plegia, she was always at her mother’s side. She feared her birth father and trembled at the sight of him. She prefered the company of her mother. She learnt very little in isolation, but was eager to learn and learn despite the time constraints and the restrictions placed on her.
When she was seven, her mother gave birth to her newly born brother. He was named Robin, she had caught of glimpse of him but that was it. Her mother decided the time to leave was two days after his birth.
So, she wrote a letter of her best ability to her little brother. It was little, with a some doodles here and there. Her mother wrote one as well, a long and detailed one. It was placed into a makeshift envelope and hidden into the extra tactician robes that her mother had.
The two of them hoped that he would find them one day.
The day they left, her mother left baby Robin with someone she trusted and soon, the two of them ran from Plegia. It was a harrowing journey for the two of them and sad one. Especially for the young girl who missed her brother and sad that she left him behind for his safety. They had ran as far from Plegia to live a peaceful life in a small shack. This was where the rest of her childhood mostly happened, the outside world, free from restrictions.
It wasn’t much and they were slightly impoverished. They were complete strangers and Plegian, but her mother managed to get by, and so did Rufure as she grew up. She learned how to read and write and had a basic education. Despite not having all the materials and few books, her mother tried to teach her everything. Everything, Rufure pretty much consumed in a way, that she took all the knowledge with in herself. She was smart and intelligent, and she loved learning.
She wanted to learn everything and her mother was proud of her hunger for knowledge. After basic education, she learnt magic, swordsmanship and more importantly tactics. The girl was smart and capable of thinking up of different strategies and tactics for war or battle. Her mother taught her these things, for defending herself from any possible danger. She was proficient in combat and was better mostly in magic. Despite her strengths laid in the area of magic, she loved learning the sword.
Most of all, she loved tactics and playing strategic chess with her mother. Yet at the same time she missed her brother. She thought of him constantly everyday, that it caused her sadness and pain in her heart. She regretted leaving him behind in Plegia due to her own circumstances. But she lived with it, anyway hoping for the best for both him and her. It was what she could do.
Her mother was the most important figure in her life, her best friend and guardian. Yet, her life ended in sickness when she was seventeen. They were poor living on small portions of food and keep to themselves. Rufure wanted to get the medication or anything for her mother, but her mother refused to let her go out far from the shack. In fear of Validar, capturing her again and forcing her to become the vessel.
The young teen at time was forced to watch her mother breathe her last moments, leaving her all alone. She buried her mother’s body far away from the shack.
She was alone now for the first time without her mother. She thought about Robin even more now, due to her loneliness. But she decided not to give up, for herself, her mother and her brother Robin.
The only things that her mother left behind was tactician robes, tactics books, and a tome. She cherished those items dearly, soon always wearing the same tactician robes. Rufure never left her shack for almost six years, keeping to herself. She indulged herself into studying about magic and practicing and practicing swordsmanship. She fend for herself against ferocious wild animals with her sword but left other wild animals alone. But what took up her time for three years was studying tactics, strategies and war.
She had an interest in battles and wars. It was something exciting from what she read. She would study up what would happen in history and replay them in chess. She would write notes about different tactics and what could have happened when she read a certain strategy or tactic in history went wrong. It was her whole small life for the moment eating very little.
When she turned twenty-three, she left her childhood home. She learnt everything by herself and decided, she was old enough, mature enough to know what was going on around the world around her. She didn’t bring her favorite books nor any of her books on war tactics. She burned them, to leave no trace behind. She only brought her tactician robe, that belonged to her mother, her tomes and her Levin Sword. She traveled tirelessly to an unknown destination. Even if she knew all the kingdoms and the lands, she didn’t know where she was.
After a few months of travelling she found herself in a open field somewhere, she didn’t know where. She was lost, and laughed at her own idiocy. She was considering to travel again, to only faint out of hunger.
Rufure wasn’t the same ever again, when she was woken up with a young boy who she never met before by a young man named Chrom, his younger sister Lissa, and his retainer Frederick.
Because she realized, she had no idea who she was and what her past was.
Nor, this young boy that was next to her, looking confused as she was.