Chapter Text
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle. Although growing up he had everything his heart desired, this did not last for long. His castle was attacked by those seeking power, and his parents were killed before his very eyes. The prince lost all those he held dear with the exception of just a few close friends, and in his devastation, he pushed even those away. One winter's night four years later, an old beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by any human contact, the prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away, but she warned him not to be so cruel, for it was his own stepmother’s lack of love for him that led to the slaughter of his family. Enraged by her words, he dismissed her again, but the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal the beautiful enchantress Cornelia, who had served in the palace when he was a child. The prince raised his lance against her, but it was too late, for she had come only to claim the title and lands of someone thought as good as dead by his people, and even his closest friends. Smile turning taunting, she told him his interior might as well match his exterior. And as punishment for raising arms against her, she transformed him into a hideous beast, and placed a powerful spell on the castle, and all who lived there. Ashamed not only of his monstrous form, but his failure to protect his people and, if the sorceress was to be believed, his own family, the beast concealed himself inside his castle, with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world. The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his twenty-third year. If he could learn to love another, and become worthy of their love in return- the way, Cornelia had told him, he was not worthy of his stepmother’s, nor those friends he had pushed away for so long- by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time; the bargain was one the enchantress was certain she would not lose. As the years passed, he fell into further despair and lost all hope, for who could ever learn to love a beast?
Dedue sighed as the sound of his father’s hammer echoing through their cottage pulled him out of the same dream he’d been having for a good week now- one he realized, as he scrubbed at his eyes blearily, he could not remember, just like the rest of them. The only image he’d been able to retain from any of his dreams had been a hulking, monstrous form, a beast with golden fur and one eye- and the blue had remained his strongest memory, a color that felt too much like it meant something, something important.
Or maybe he was just reading too much into things, clinging to any possibility that there was something out there that would give him an excuse to leave this town. He’d dreamed of getting out- of leaving the whispers that followed his family wherever they went- since he was too young to remember much else.
He’d been sick of how numb he’d gotten to those whispers for just as long.
Still, at the very least he had his escapes- it had been clear for years now that even though his father wanted at least one child to follow in his stead and become a blacksmith, Dedue was much more suited to cooking, to delicate tasks like needlework, to anything he could do with his hands that might fetch a penny at the market when his father’s weapons weren’t selling. And much more so than those, he had his garden- something the rest of the village could never take from him, regardless of the murmurs he’d catch, the talk of how the blacksmith’s son spent more time with plants than he did other people, how odd that was… but he was content in his solitude, content in the escape his garden offered him, so what did it matter, really?
Among his flowers, he could, for a moment, pretend he was anywhere, and gods, did he enjoy pretending he wasn’t in this village.
But- oh, he’d almost forgotten. The village florist had mentioned she was getting a new shipment of blooms that day, and he wanted to be the first to pick some out.
Not that he exactly had tough competition.
Still, Dedue felt a little more willing to face another day in this town at the thought, and it was enough for him to dress quickly and make his way out the door and to the market with quick goodbyes to his family. The village was quiet, but he knew it wouldn’t be for long- the more people that woke up, the worse the crowds in the market would be, and he’d wanted to snag some more eggs, anyways, because their laying hen had been getting old and a recipe he’d wanted to try required more than she was able to produce on her own.
He quickened his pace, ignoring the sparse people walking the streets, exchanging hellos with each other- but not to him, never to him. That was fine. At the very least, he appreciated the solitude.
At least, that’s what he told himself, pushing down any ache for more. His family would always come first, before any selfish desires of his own, so here he’d stay until his father managed to find someplace better that would take his wares. That’s what he had been convincing himself for the past nine years, ever since the royal family, who had always been fond of his father’s work, was slaughtered and they’d had to flee to this village. Anything Dedue might have wanted for himself, any life that did not involve protecting those he held dear, simply had to come second.
Still… it didn’t hurt to dream, sometimes, even if his flowers were the only ones he could share those dreams with.
The Pinelli-Varley Flowershop’s door was still shut when he reached it, but that did not deter him. Bernadetta, the sweet woman who ran it, was perhaps one of the only people in the village he would consider a friend, and she never minded him arriving early on days she got new shipments of flowers. He didn’t hesitate to knock, and the door swung open a moment later to Bernadetta’s wife, Leonie.
He nodded a greeting, and she smiled in return- they did not often talk, but he respected her, and trusted Bernadetta’s judgement; he knew she felt the same. “Bernie’s still sorting out the shipment in the back,” she told him. “I can let her know you’re here.”
“No-no need!” Bernadetta called, her soft voice echoing from the back of the shop. “I’ll be right there in a moment!”
True to her word, a moment later Bernadetta made her way into the entrance hall, grinning. There was a streak of dirt on her cheek, one Leonie rubbed off fondly before kissing the spot. Dedue chuckled as Bernadetta flushed furiously. “Good- good morning, Dedue!” she squeaked, placing a hand on Leonie’s chest without actually pushing her away. “You’re here about the flowers, yes?”
He nodded. “I am. Would you mind if I had a look?”
Bernadetta broke away from Leonie with a smile and shook her head. “Of course not! I think there are some new ones you’d like.”
He followed her into the back room, Leonie following for a moment to give her wife a goodbye kiss before murmuring something about needing to go buy fish and heading out. Dedue didn’t pay too much attention to them, though- he knew how nervous Bernadetta could get about the displays of affection, even in front of someone she’d known for a while and come to trust, like him. He didn’t know her full story, but from what little he had learned over the years it had not been a happy one.
He was glad that she had a life that made her happy, though, here and now.
As he surveyed the back room, brimming with new plants that would either be moved into the greenhouse outside or taken to the market later in the day, he paused, catching a flash of blue in the corner of his vision that was oddly familiar. The flowers in question were small and unassuming, clustered so tightly together in their pot it was almost as if they were choking themselves under their own weight. But their color…
It was the same blue he kept seeing, night after night, in his dreams.
Bernadetta wandered over, looking less flustered, and hummed approvingly when she saw what had caught his eye. “The forget-me-nots from Faerghus are especially blue, aren’t they?” she asked, voice brightening like it tended to when talking about her flowers. He nodded.
“I hardly recognized them as forget-me-nots at all. I’ve never seen them this shade before.” He leaned closer, gently tilting up a bloom that was beginning to droop. “They’re… enchanting.”
Bernadetta laughed. “If you like them so much, they’re yours.”
He paused, glancing up at her to be met only with earnest sincerity in her gaze. “Bernadetta, I cannot possibly accept. At least allow me to pay for them- the people of this town do not give you enough as it is-”
She waved her hand. “The people of this town want… my roses, that’s all. They’re all that sells.” She looked dejected for a moment, and he almost placed his hand on her shoulder before he thought the better of it- he didn’t wish to startle her, and it was easy to do so. She brightened a moment later, though. “It’s- not that it’s anyone’s fault! They just all want roses for the ones they love. I can’t fault them for that!”
He shook his head, smiling gently, and could see Bernadetta relax a little. “Of course not. But still, I can’t-”
“Nonsense!” she squeaked, wincing at the tone of her own voice. “I- mean. Really, you shouldn’t worry about it! You’re a friend, Dedue. It’s the least I can do.”
He could see in her gaze that she was dead set on it, and, well… he did not wish to upset her should he refuse. He sighed. “Very well. Please, allow me to repay you in some other way, at the very least.”
She smiled. “Then I’ll let you know when I think of one.”
It was as much of an acceptance as he was going to get, he figured.
Forget-me-nots in hand, Dedue bid Bernadetta farewell, but sighed as he was almost immediately pulled into the massive crowd currently gathering in the square. Buying eggs would have to wait, he supposed dryly, glancing around and almost immediately spotting the source of the commotion at the center of the crowd, clad all in red and flanked by her two right-hand men. Edelgard von Hresvelg had returned from her hunting expedition, then.
She was giving some sort of speech to the crowd, one that Dedue tuned out as he tried to work his way through the crowd without damaging the flowers- easier said than done, really. The blooms were more delicate than he’d anticipated, and one had already lost its petals in the time it had taken him to get from Bernadetta’s to the crowd. He’d admit a part of him hated the way the townspeople flocked to whoever would paint them pretty promises.
Edelgard ran the town, that much was true, but as of late every last party she had sent into the woods had not returned. There had been rumors of a beast, one that was killing all who ventured too deeply into the forest, and many of the townspeople had been taken by the story. Dedue was not one of them. Still, what had started out as a few sporadic hunting parties turned into more and more, until Edelgard was sending out entire groups of men armed to the teeth and none would return. It was clear the losses were weighing heavily on her, but… Dedue wished she would stop sending people into the forest at all. She’d promised the town they would kill the beast, but whatever was in there would clearly be better off left alone.
The tail end of whatever Edelgard was saying filtered back into his awareness as he tried desperately to find a way to make it through without jostling people, a process hindered by his large frame. “... And we have finally found, in our last foray, armor proving that our men are being killed in these woods.” She turned to the man at her left, shorter than the other and with his long orange hair swept into a ponytail. “Show them, Ferdinand.”
The man (ah, he was Ferdinand, so the broody-looking one to Edelgard’s right must be Hubert- notorious just as much for his utterly unexpected yet utterly devoted marriage to Ferdinand as he was for how ruthlessly he would carry out Edelgard’s orders) lifted a helmet, mangled on one side and caked with blood. Dedue involuntarily winced. Whatever had caused that… was not a human, he would admit.
“And if you look here,” Edelgard continued, “You can see the bite marks, caused by something far larger, far more dangerous than any wolf we know. Whatever is lurking in the woods, we must rip it out at the root so we may continue to live freely.”
The crowd cheered, and Dedue furrowed his brow. She knew what the people wanted to hear, that much was clear, but how did she intend to do that, when so far no one had come back alive…?
“Which is why I, personally, will be leading a strike force, with new, better weapons forged by one of the finest blacksmiths the kingdom- no, the country- has to offer,” she continued, and Dedue’s blood ran cold as cheers erupted around him.
His father.
Heart in his throat, he turned to push through the crowd without listening to the rest of Edelgard’s speech- he had to get home, had to warn his family that they were about to be dragged into this mess. They did not nearly have the resources, and his father was overworked enough as it was- gods, what were they going to do? It would pay well, to be sure, but… he knew his father, knew they were much the same. The last thing he would do would be to forge weapons to aid in a suicide mission.
But how could they say no, when the town disliked them enough as it was?
He had to duck through several side streets to avoid the worst of the crowd- now buzzing with anticipation and thinly-veiled bloodlust that he did not wish to dwell on for too long- and by the time he got home, the worst of his fears were realized. He did not even have to enter to see the flash of red through the window of his home and realize Edelgard was already inside, already talking to his father, already dragging their family into her mess. No-
But the next instant the door opened and Edelgard walked out, heels clicking crisply across the cobblestones. Her face was unreadable- Dedue could not tell what had transpired, and swallowed hard, heart pounding too, too fast-
But as unreadable as Edelgard’s face was, Ferdinand von Aegir was an open book. The distress on his face as he trotted out a beat after her, followed by his husband- who linked their hands and was met with a look of gratitude- was all Dedue needed to see for relief to swell in him.
They were alright, then. They had to be.
He waited for the three to disappear down the road before entering through his garden and placing the forget-me-nots near a spot he’d been meaning to fill for a while. He’d plant them after he found out what, exactly, had happened- there was still a danger they might be pulled into the beast-hunting, anyway. Crossing Edelgard was not a good idea, not when Hubert was around.
“Dedue, oh, thank the gods,” his sister breathed the moment he walked in, and his previous relief shattered. His father and mother looked nearly ill, and his sister threw her arms around him the minute he shut the door.
“I saw Edelgard’s speech in the square,” he breathed softly, patting his sister on the head. “I tried to get here as fast as I could, but-”
“I told her it was a suicide mission to go back into the woods, and we couldn’t possibly help,” his father said, voice shakier than Dedue had ever heard it. “And she informed us that she would be back to see if we… changed our minds. About helping the right cause.”
Ah. “So we have no choice in the matter, then.”
His father shook his head. “I don’t believe so. But we lack the resources to fulfill a request of this magnitude. I would have to make a trip to Arianrhod for more umbral steel, at the very least.”
Dedue sighed. The tone of his father’s voice was all he needed to know that he had already accepted that he was going. “When are you departing?”
“Within the hour,” his father said, and he looked so tired it hurt. Dedue couldn’t just let him shoulder this burden.
“No- I can make the trip myself-”
“I couldn’t make you do that. It is a long ride, and the woods have been dangerous of late.” His father placed a hand on his shoulder. “I will be alright, Dedue. The smithing job… has never been your burden to bear.”
It was something that had gone unspoken for a long time, but to hear it said, now… Dedue had to close his eyes, had to fight back a sudden hot surge too close to tears. “I- very well. Please… be careful, father.”
His father nodded, and enough was said.
After his father left, promising to return in a few days, Dedue found himself in his garden as usual. It was a place he could think, could find peace no matter the state of the world around him, and gods if he didn’t need peace at that moment. After deliberating for a while, he planted the forget-me-nots between brilliant irises and a patch of morning glories that were just beginning to bloom. The blue of the little flowers managed to outshine their companions, however, by a long shot.
He wondered what it was about that shade that he couldn’t seem to let go of.
It was later, when rain battered against the windows of their cottage and he could only pray that his father had found shelter for the night, that the blue entered his mind again- present, as ever, in his dreams. In this dream, though, Dedue got closer than ever before, and found himself standing directly before the beast he had been unable to stop dreaming about, found himself staring directly into one brilliant blue eye.
It was all too human, too much behind it to decipher, but as Dedue reached forward- perhaps to cup a cheek, perhaps to offer some comfort to quell the torment he could plainly see- a crack of thunder tore him away, left him sitting bolt upright as the image of what he had seen fled the corners of his waking mind.
In the morning, all he could remember was the eye of the beast.