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“If this is a joke, Sylvain, it’s not funny.”
Felix’s week had been going alright. He was finally returning to his territory to check on how things were going, as he spent most of his time in the capital helping the Boar while his father took care of a lot of the responsibilities back home. Three years after the war, Faerghus was actually doing very well. The former Empire lords and ministers were being relatively compliant, relations with the Leicester-Almyra Federation were still going strong, all resistances had ceased, the sharing of resources across the mountains was causing the whole Kingdom to flourish economically, and favor for the current king was at an all-time high and only rising. Felix was actually pretty proud of the Boar for once; he was starting to become competent at this.
And then three days ago he found a baby on his doorstep with a note from Sylvain of all people, pleading for absolute secrecy about this and promising to explain when he arrived in a few days’ time. Now his best friend was sitting in front of him, looking absolutely forlorn while Felix scowled at him for the mess he suddenly found himself in. "Well?" the Duke snapped. "You said you would explain. So do it."
"It's hard to find where to start," Sylvain sighed, but before he could continue, the door to the library where they were sitting in opened, and Rodrigue walked in.
"I hope I'm not too late. My apologies, there was a letter to His Majesty that I was nearly finished with when I got the news of Sylvain's arrival," he explained before taking a seat himself. "It's been a long time, Sylvain. It is good to see you again."
"Good to see you both," Sylvain responded, but his smile was unable to reach his eyes before it dropped. "I'm sorry for how sudden this was."
"No worries. I've been helping Felix care for the child since she arrived."
"Thank you."
An awkward silence fell over the three men for a moment until Felix got too impatient to let it continue. "I assume she's one of your twins. Why are you giving her up, and why to me of all people? There must be a million others more capable."
Sylvain let out a hollow laugh and ran his fingers through his hair. "Believe it or not, Felix, there is no one better than you to take my girl. I need someone who I know for a fact can keep her safe no matter what. Because right now, my wife thinks she's dead, and it has to stay that way."
At that last part, a deafening silence fell over the library. Felix suddenly had even more questions, so many that he knew for a fact none of them would come out in any coherent sentence. So he settled for one word that basically covered all of them. "...Why?" he whispered.
Sylvain closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Elenora is a Crest supremacist," he began. "At her insistence, I took our girls to a Crest expert to see if either of them had one. The results said that Noelle has the Crest of Gautier, but Isabelle does not. I went home dreading the response, and sure enough, my wife ordered one of our servants to take her into the snowdrifts and-"
Sylvain's voice broke and his sentence trailed off, but Felix was smart enough to know what his friend was unable to say. He knew Sylvain's life had been miserable ever since they were forced to break up their secret relationship when the margrave announced the arranged marriage. He also still remembered the day Elenora told him she knew about his history with Sylvain and banned him from future contact with the Gautier family. And he had heard whispers since then of the tension between the married couple. But he never imagined that the woman was so evil to order the death of her own child. Felix's fists clenched, and his response came through gritted teeth. "So let me guess: you knew how insane and cruel that was and bribed the guy into bringing her here instead."
"Yeah," Sylvain confirmed, nodding slowly. "And that's why I need you to be the one to take her. There isn't anyone else I can trust to protect her as much as you. I want you to do what I can't. I want you to give her a home that will love her. I want you to treat her as your own. I want you to teach her how to be a fighter. But most of all, I want you to keep her far away from that woman in my house that wants her dead. Even if that means I may never see her again."
Sylvain wiped at his eyes as his voice cracked again, and Felix considered everything he had been told. That was a hell of a lot of information all at once, and frankly he didn't know what to do with most of it. He knew how dire of a situation this was, but if what Sylvain wanted was a proper upbringing for his kid, Felix couldn't help but think his friend was barking up the wrong tree. He supposed protecting a kid wasn't going to be the problem for him — it was the fact that he had never considered himself the type of person to be a parent. He sighed. "I'm sorry Sylvain, but I don't think I'm cut out for raising a kid," he admitted. "I don't have the patience for that, and I sure as hell don't have any experience with children whatsoever."
Something in Sylvain's eyes died at that, and Felix silently cursed himself for wording that so insensitively. What was he thinking? The guy was only trying to keep his kid alive. But it was the truth. Felix would never be able to do this on his own.
"If I may," Rodrigue suddenly cut in, "I know I haven't been the best father to you Felix, but if you'll let me, I'd be happy to help raise the girl."
Felix blinked, then squinted at his father for a moment, considering the offer. While it was unquestionable that Rodrigue had a lot more experience with fatherhood than he did, Felix didn't want this kid to have all the bullshit chivalric values impressed on her that he himself had to endure all his life. He'd want her to make decisions based on her own judgment rather than a set of morals that in Felix's experience had only ever held people back. Finally he gave an annoyed yet resigned huff as he glared at his father. "Fine. But I don't want you impressing any of your crazy interpretations of duty and honor on her. As far as moral standards go, I'll be in charge of that."
"I'm gonna be honest," Sylvain suddenly spoke up, and Felix turned to see his friend smiling in a way that almost looked happy. Almost. "Nothing would make me more proud. You may not believe me right now Felix, but I think you'll raise her to be a better person than I could ever hope to."
"Hmph. That's not something I can promise you," Felix replied gruffly, looking away.
"It won't be easy," Sylvain admitted. "And there will be times where it will seem like too much. But in the end, the good times always shine brighter than the rough spots."
"Whatever."
"But I have to warn you of something." Felix's attention was drawn back at the darkened tone, and he turned back to see Sylvain looking at him with a grave expression. "No one, and I mean no one, can know that she's mine. None of our friends — Dimitri, Ingrid, Annette, Dedue, Byleth, Mercedes, Ashe — none of them can know her true origins. As far as anyone else knows, Isabelle Ariana Gautier is dead, and I want it to stay that way. Change her name, I'll leave the choice to you. I'm sure she won't grow up to look like you, but that doesn't matter; she's a Fraldarius and always has been." Sylvain paused to take a wavering breath in. "I love my daughters, and because of that I have to let this one go. Noelle will be okay because she has a Crest. But Isabelle will not. As much as it hurts me, I need to be sure that everything that ties her to my house is cut away. I can't have Elenora finding a trail of breadcrumbs leading to you. She thinks I'm visiting House Galatea right now, and that's my next stop, at least to make sure that it actually happened in case she tries to investigate. No one can know."
Another silence fell over the room. Felix bit his lip, thinking it all over. If he was being honest with himself, he still was in love with his best friend, and he would do anything if it meant banishing that awful look of grief on Sylvain's face. It didn't suit him, he would much rather see his stupid grin than whatever this was. Though taking this baby and raising it as his own… that was a tall order. But considering the stakes and how confident Sylvain was that he could do this, Felix just couldn't bring himself to say no. He sighed again before squinting at his childhood friend, the man he still loved and doubted he would ever truly get over. "Fine," he said stiffly, "I can take her, and I can promise that no one will know she's yours, but I can't promise I'll be a perfect parent."
Relief spread across Sylvain's face, and his body visibly relaxed as he let out a tiny chuckle. "No parent is perfect, Felix. I'd never make you promise anything like that. All I ask is for you to show her the love she would never find in House Gautier. No, I'm not asking you to go soft, nor am I trying to dictate what kind of person you want her to be. All I need from you is to do your best."
"Don't worry, Felix," Rodrigue added. "I will help when you need it, but I'll try to back off when you ask me to."
"Thank you, Felix," Sylvain choked, attempting to give a melancholy smile. "I'll find a way to repay you someday, even if it's a long time from now."
"Don't cry on me, you idiot," Felix grumbled.
"Alright, alright." After wiping at his eyes, Sylvain's smile once again left him as he added, "Where is she? I think… I think I want to say goodbye."
Felix nodded before standing up. "She's upstairs. I'll take you to her."
Bella Frances Fraldarius.
After a long brainstorming session with his father, during which Felix shot down many embarrassing ideas, that was the baby girl's new name. Bella, as a tribute to the name Sylvain gave her, Isabelle. Frances, after Felix's mother. Fraldarius, her family from today onwards. And as Felix peered into the old crib retrieved from the attic, studying the sleeping child, he decided it fit.
The past few days had been nothing short of hectic. Felix found himself balancing his time between a painful crash course on parenting from his father and working out all the technical shit: the holes he would need to plug, the alibis he had to come up with, his estate staff sworn to secrecy, the letters to his friends and acquaintances informing them of an extended absence. It was tiring and he hated it, but he made a promise to protect this kid, and he intended to keep it.
He was nowhere near ready for this, though. Sylvain had assured him that no one ever was, that all this uncertainty was normal, and that he would make a great father. But as he thought about how long Sylvain held the girl as he whispered his goodbyes, as he remembered how Sylvain left the nursery room as if something inside him had just died, as he recalled all the hasty last minute instructions Sylvain gave him before he rode away south towards Galatea, Felix couldn't help but think that his friend would still be a much better father. If only his poor kid wasn't supposed to be dead in the snow by now.
He really hated Sylvain's excuse of a wife. It was beyond jealousy at this point — she was just downright evil. To leave a baby for dead simply because it was Crestless… it wasn't even human. Crest supremacists were starting to run rampant, and at this rate Felix was starting to think they were going to become the next big threat now that Those Who Slither in the Dark had all been hunted down and killed. Society was trying to move on past the idea that Crests were a necessary part of nobility, since the bloodlines were running thin and less and less Crested heirs were available. In only a few generations, the different Crests would start dying out, one by one. Without anyone to wield them, Hero's Relics were going to be just that: relics of the past. The sooner everyone accepted that, the better. But there were still those who would fight it. There needed to be more people in the world who thought like Sylvain did. Felix still remembered the parting words his friend gave him, and those were what drove him to keep trudging through all the new duties that had been piled on him in the past few days.
'Y'know Fe, I used to call kids of nobles Crest Babies out of cynicism. I didn't want the responsibilities of a parent, especially when I thought the only purpose was to pass on my damn Crest. But now I realize that was only because it was how my father saw it, because despite everything, I will never regret my girls. I love both of them regardless of their Crest status, yet I still find myself making life decisions for them based on it. I wonder if that's as heartbreaking to other parents as it is to me.'
Felix furrowed his brow. Sylvain was sacrificing so much, risking so much, just so his kid didn't have to die. And he still saw it as selfish to do it. Felix couldn't let all that pain be for nothing, even if he didn't know what the hell he was doing in regard to most of this. He couldn't promise he could be a good parent, or even a competent one. But he could promise that this girl would grow up a fighter.
"I know one thing kiddo," Felix whispered, knowing the sleeping girl couldn't hear him but not giving a shit. "You're gonna show everyone that you don't have to have a Crest to kick ass."