Chapter Text
Fragments of a remembered dream.
A blue-haired swordsman.
Words of encouragement.
Betrayal.
Death.
The laughter of a fell god.
Robin, much to his chagrin, woke up in an empty field after a frustratingly vague premonition, again.
On the upside, the fact that he could describe these events as happening again was a positive. Last time, he’d suffered a rather severe case of amnesia, as a result of his evil dragon self from the future trying to claim his soul and failing. This time was the outcome of him deciding to slay that fell god once and for all, rather than returning it to slumber for a thousand years. Apparently that didn’t cause amnesia, which was good to know.
On the downside, this empty field was unfamiliar even with his memories in place. That said, it was picturesque; rolling green hills, a lovely blue sky with fluffy white clouds, a horde of red-eyed undead monstrosities slowly encircling a nearby group of travellers-
Robin leapt into action before he fully grasped the situation, instincts honed by years of battling similar creatures causing him to draw his blade and ready his magical tome without conscious effort. A coruscating bolt of thunder magic leapt from his outstretched hand, utterly obliterating a handful of the creatures. The remaining ones turned to face him, suddenly aware of the far greater threat in their midst.
Sword in hand, he waded into the thick of the battle, alternating between efficient strikes with the weapon and more carefully controlled bursts of magic from his tome. The travellers, no longer in imminent danger, made their move. A knight that reminded him of Frederick struck out at the beasts with an axe from horseback, a young boy scrambled for cover behind the mount, and a girl that looked like the boy’s sister took up a defensive stance with a healing staff. But it was the fourth member of the group that drew Robin’s attention the most, and for good reason.
“Shine on, Emblem of Beginnings!” she cried.
The woman was certainly distinct, with vivid red and blue hair split almost down the middle, matching a pair of heterochromatic eyes, dressed in an ornate outfit dominated by white and gold. It was about as gaudy as some of Chrom’s less functional uniforms, though it at least had two complete sleeves. Even that couldn’t compare to the strangest sight Robin had ever seen, which was saying a lot considering the long and strange journey he’d kept the memories of this time around: The ghost of Marth, the legendary hero-king, summoned to her side.
“I am Marth. Emblem Marth, to be clear.”
Robin had to admit, that wasn’t clear at all.
On reflex, he fell backwards, narrowly avoiding a wild axe swing from one of the undead creatures, and he cursed his inattentiveness. These monsters weren’t anywhere near as dangerous as some of the Risen he’d beaten, but that didn’t mean he could afford to be distracted, not even by the shade of a legendary hero!
As he recovered, clashing blades with the creature in a stalemate, he saw the woman reach for a ring she wore, as she declared “Emblem, engage!”
Suddenly, the ghost of Marth was only the second-weirdest thing he’d ever seen. First place went to this lady taking that ghost of Marth and doing some sort of absolutely unprecedented ritual to fuse with it, her whole form infused with ethereal light. In the blink of an eye, she launched herself at the axe-wielding Risen he was locked in combat with, a flurry of blows causing it to disintegrate into ashes. Even her sword had transformed, the simple iron blade reforged into a deadly sharp rapier like the ones he’d seen both Chrom and Lucina wield.
Just as quickly, the transformed state came to an end, and the ghost of Marth reemerged as the woman returned to normal, or at least what passed for it around here. The undead had all been dispatched, the boy he saw earlier had managed to find the tome he’d apparently dropped, and the quartet were all looking at him like he was the unusual one in this situation.
“Thank you for coming to our aid,” the lady said. She gave a weak smile. “I wasn’t sure if I could handle these creatures, at least not without Marth’s help. They unnerve me for some reason.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” Robin replied. “I’d be more concerned if you had no qualms with battling undead monsters that serve the Fell Dragon.”
“You’re familiar with the Corrupted, then?” asked the elder knight, brow furrowing and making Robin even more certain that he was this group’s Frederick. “I must ask you to identify yourself, stranger. You stand in the presence of the Divine Dragon.”
Robin spun around, wondering where Tiki was, before realising he was making a fool of himself. He wouldn’t have pegged this woman as a manakete, but he was hardly one to talk, was he? “My apologies, sir knight, and your holiness. I am Robin, Grandmaster of Ylisse.” He tilted his head. “You call the Risen ‘Corrupted’, so we’re clearly not on Archanea or Valm, but would you happen to know how far I am from home?”
“Archanea?” Marth’s spirit asked. “My homeland?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Robin stammered. “I didn’t realise you could speak and act, Lodestar Marth, I wasn’t sure how the mechanics of your spirithood worked-”
“That’s quite alright,” the ghost assured him, “Now that I think on it, I have heard the name Ylisse before. You hail from a time well into my future, do you not?”
“Ylisse?” the knight interjected, disbelief etched onto his face. “The realm of the Princess Exalt?”
“Wait, you’ve heard of Lucina, but not me?” Robin gave an exasperated groan. “I really hope I haven’t been asleep for a thousand years and forgotten about.”
“You were asleep for a thousand years too!?” The Divine Dragon asked, eyes shining.
“What in the world have I gotten myself into.”
—
Further introductions were made, and circumstances became slightly clearer. This was the land of Elyos, a realm that lay at the centre of many others, including the world Robin called home. A thousand years ago, a Fell Dragon known as Sombron threatened to destroy it, and the great heroes of the time, including the Divine Dragon, drew upon twelve legendary heroes from the surrounding worlds, summoning echoes of their power known as Emblems. They sealed Sombron away, the Emblems became figures of renown, and the Divine Dragon an object of worship.
That meant the ghost of Marth following the Divine Dragon, who introduced herself as Alear, was not the actual Marth. He was Emblem Marth, to be clear. But it meant something else, too.
The fact that Lucina was a hero of legend a thousand years ago in this land meant that everyone he’d ever loved was dead and gone.
“I’m very far from home,” Robin said to himself, suddenly sobered by the fact. He knew that he’d been holding out hope for a happy ending when he sacrificed himself to destroy Grima, his own Fell Dragon, once and for all, but realising that his friends and family were realms away and countless years past still hurt.
“You’re more than welcome to accompany us to Lythos Castle,” Alear offered, with her caretakers Clanne (the tome boy), Framme (the staff girl) and Vander (the axe knight) all varying degrees of agreeable to the idea. Clanne seemed excited by the prospect of a talented magic user to talk to, Framme was grateful for his assistance against the Corrupted, and Vander, while guarded, was still less wary than Frederick had been when Chrom had invited him to join the Shepherds all those years ago.
“I think that’s a fine idea,” Robin decided. “While I suspect your mother Queen Lumera won’t be able to send me back, she might have some ideas. And I don’t mind helping you deal with these Corrupted, either.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll do what I can as the Divine Dragon to help.” She turned, stiffening, as a winged creature appeared on the horizon. “We have a dragon incoming.”
Robin turned, squinting. “It’s bright white, and quite large, so I don’t think it’s a wyvern. Do you happen to know if Divine Dragons like you and your mother are manaketes?”
“I just woke up after a thousand years of sleep. I have no idea.”
“Queen Lumera is capable of assuming a draconic form, and that does bear a resemblance to it,” Vander provided as the dragon got within his eyeshot.
“I suppose she might have noticed you waking up and flown over to meet you, your worship,” Framme guessed.
“Or she sensed the Corrupted attacking and came to help, only for a hero from another place and time to have already saved the day,” Clanne responded, giving Robin the uncanny feeling that he’d given the enthusiastic boy a new obsession besides the Divine Dragon.
The dragon landed with some force, before disappearing in a flash of light as Queen Lumera donned her humanoid form. She was beautiful, Robin absently noted, but didn’t resemble Alear much at all, with the closest similarity being blue hair in quite a different shade from the half the younger Divine Dragon had.
He took a step back to let mother and daughter reunite, regardless. Queen Lumera had looked after Alear as she slept for a thousand years. Whether she gave birth to her or not was trivial in comparison to that.
After an involved discussion, she turned to him. “And who might you be, sir? I see that the stewards of the Divine Dragon trust your presence here, but no one enters Lythos, the Divine Dragon’s realm, freely.”
“Robin, Grandmaster of Ylisse, and personal friend to the Princess Exalt of legend, your grace,” he replied. “I woke not far from here under mysterious circumstances after putting a permanent end to the Fell Dragon of my own world, and intend to offer aid to your daughter.”
Lumera’s eyes narrowed into reptilian slits for an instant, and Robin’s heart skipped a beat before she regained her composure. “How curious. I happen to be in possession of the Ring of the Princess Exalt. Perhaps the Emblem of Awakening would like to meet an old friend.”
This was a test, but one Robin was confident he could succeed at. “I’d be more than happy to see Lucina again, your grace. I said my goodbyes, but I didn’t really get to say farewell, you understand?”
Lumera looked morose. “I do, more than you know, sir Robin.” She glanced back at Alear, and the depth of sorrow in that gaze reminded him of Tiki at the Mila Tree, remembering Marth. “I will fly us to Lythos Castle, if all of you are ready?”
—
The central Ring Chamber of Lythos Castle was home to six of the Emblem Rings, with the others spread out across the other countries of Elyos. If all twelve were in the hands of one person, they could do almost unimaginable things, and so only on very rare occasions did a Divine Dragon gather them all together. It was merely chance that Lucina’s ring was one in Lumera’s possession at this time.
“Reignite us, Emblem of Awakening!” the Divine Dragon Queen declared, bringing forth the Princess Exalt.
“Robin!”
Having a ghost try to give you a hug was very disconcerting, he decided, as Emblem Lucina joyfully invaded his personal space. Apart from her unusual spiritual nature, she looked almost identical to when he last saw her, from her outfit that resembled Marth’s, to her lovely dark blue hair, down to the Brand of the Exalt in her left eye.
“It’s good to see you again, Lucina,” Robin replied, extricating himself from her ethereal embrace. His relationship with the time travelling princess was complex, to say the least, but that they held deep feelings for one another was undeniable. “Has it truly been a thousand years for you?”
“The passing of time is different for us Emblems,” she replied, slightly bashful. “I’m no philosopher, but the life I live is not quite the same as the life Lucina of Ylisse lived. But know that I remember you all the same, and I missed you, just like she would have.”
He felt a wry little smile creep onto his face. “The way you talk about it reminds me of how she talked about her younger self, actually.”
She brightened at that. “Yes, exactly! My life has made Elyos a better place. I’m happy with that, and I’m happy that she got to live her own life. I only wish she’d gotten to live it with you, Robin.”
“Me too, Lucina,” he said, gently touching her spectral cheek. He turned to Lumera, considering. “Your grace, you mentioned that you suspect Sombron is going to return, or has already returned, and you plan on sending Alear to collect the Emblem Rings to seal him away again, yes?”
She nodded. “I believe I understand what you are going to ask, Robin. I believe it is well within the Emblem Rings’ power to return you to Ylisse shortly after your disappearance. My daughter has expressed hope that you would join her in her journey, but claimed she would be willing to assist you regardless.”
Robin shook his head. “I could hardly sit back and let another Fell Dragon plot to destroy the world. I have such a wealth of experience on the topic! I’d be glad to help. And I can start by developing your daughter’s tactical acumen.”
Lumera raised an eyebrow. “And what do you propose?”
—
“Provide for us, Emblem of the Holy War! Emblem, engage!”
Queen Lumera summoned Emblem Sigurd, a striking figure astride a mighty warhorse, before performing the same ritual that Alear had done with Marth earlier, emerging as a deadly warrior goddess wielding a wicked horse-killing lance. With divine speed and power, she shot across the mock battlefield and crashed with enormous force into Vander, unhorsing the old knight and sending him rolling across the neatly manicured lawns of Lythos Castle.
“I thank you for holding back, your majesty,” the paladin wheezed, clearly unable to continue. Framme minced over to wave a healing staff over him, but he waved her off, clearly deciding that such a blow would be lethal in a real battle.
Alear cringed away from one of Lumera’s Fabrications, a puppeteered simulacrum formed of inanimate matter that nonetheless bore a disturbing resemblance to the Corrupted. Clanne proceeded to blow it to bits with a fire spell, sending plant matter and fragments of rock everywhere. Steeling herself, the younger Divine Dragon advanced towards her mother, reaching for the Ring of the Hero-King she wore.
“Emblem, engage!” she declared, drawing forth the mystical rapier that Emblem Marth bestowed upon her. As she traded blows with Lumera, she could feel the spirit of the Altean prince alongside her, and she took heart in it.
“My prayers are with you,” she intoned, feeling her bond shine bright. In the blink of an eye, she struck again and again, slipping through her opponent’s defences, each attack like a star in the night sky. One final thrust, and the name of this mystical technique sprang from her lips. “Lodestar Rush!”
Lumera slumped, defeated but heartened. “Well done, my daughter! Your bond with Emblem Marth is as strong as I could hope. To fight to protect your allies, to see them safe from harm, is the highest aspiration of a Divine Dragon.”
Robin, seated at a good vantage point, scribbled an increasingly lengthy series of notes. There was a reasonable basis to work on here, but as that implied, there was a lot of work to do. Vander was no Frederick, Clanne was uncannily similar to Ricken in ways both good and bad, and Framme had similar issues to what Lissa had faced, at least on the battlefield. Alear had a lot of raw talent but no discipline or tactical insight to support it, and given that she was going to be safekeeping a dozen incredibly powerful magical artifacts, that needed to change, fast.
He absently noted that Lumera gave Alear her sword, a fine enough blade but nothing of legendary power or significance. Still, a gift from mother to daughter was nice to see, even if Alear seemed to be having trouble accepting the more emotionally charged ones, like the ring she’d promised her a thousand years ago.
It made sense, he decided. If his mother was alive and had met him in that field outside Southtown, he’d be grateful for any help she could give him, but it’d be hard to honour any promises his old self had made her, or accept the complicated past they must have had.
—
Robin woke in the middle of the night as Elyos Castle came under fire, and his instincts paid off as he found and dispatched several enemy soldiers that had attempted to infiltrate the wing where he, Alear and her caretakers were sleeping. Clanne and Framme looked rather nauseous at the aftermath, but Vander hurried the four of them towards the bridge to the Ring Vault on Emblem Marth’s insistence.
Scattered dragon’s breath and magical attacks made it clear that Queen Lumera was there, defending the Emblem Rings from these mysterious attackers, but there were a lot of soldiers in their way. Sheer weight of numbers would win the day on a narrow pass like this, even if Robin was significantly stronger than any of them individually.
“We have to save my mother!” Alear cried, distraught. Marth gently lay a hand on her shoulder to stop her from charging in alone, casting an imploring look at their Ylissean tactician.
“It’ll do us no good getting ourselves killed reaching her,” he replied, making a rapid assessment of the battlefield ahead. One of his unique powers was the ability to quickly and accurately determine enemy locations, strength, equipment and capabilities, which had saved countless lives in the wars he’d lead. Here, it was telling him that his best move was to advance as slowly as possible, forcing their opponents to choose between confronting them or keeping Lumera contained within the Ring Vault. “If we attack methodically, they’ll have to split their forces between maintaining their perimeter and responding to us. Draw them out of position and use overwhelming force to avoid taking casualties.”
Alear gritted her teeth and nodded, gesturing for Vander to lead the way. As the axe knight crashed into a lance-wielding soldier, the enemy’s weapon went flying, and one of the unusual elements of Elyosian warfare became known to Robin: The so-called ‘weapon triangle’, a hypothetical that he’d never considered in his own world, was very real here. If a weapon was even conceptually a sword, axe or lance, it would defeat or be defeated by the other in turn, in such spectacular fashion that no defense or counterattack was truly possible.
On top of this revelation, his power alerted him to an incoming flight of pegasus knights. That complicated things, to say the least. As he reconsidered his tactical approach, hoofbeats echoed behind him, signalling the arrival of a third party to the battle.
“Alfred, prince of Firene, here to save the day!” A young blond cavalier proclaimed, his lance poised and ready to strike. Behind him, a mountain of a man and a small but remarkably muscular woman arrived, only slightly winded from keeping up with someone on horseback. “These are my retainers Etie and Boucheron, but proper introductions can wait! Divine One, we’re at your command!”
“Follow Robin’s lead!” Alear declared, gesturing with her head at the tactician as she finished off an enemy soldier. The momentary distraction was dangerous, but Emblem Marth’s spectral blade deflected the next enemy’s attempt to capitalise on it, and Alear spun back into the fray.
Robin waved to grab the trio’s attention, then began shouting orders. “Alfred, Boucheron, you’re on area denial! There’s not enough space here for standard cavalry tactics - find a spot and hold it so we can move up! Cover one another’s blind spots. Etie, you’ll have space behind them, so fire at will, the incoming pegasus knights are getting bottlenecked by the bridge’s layout!”
The three of them were apparently unfamiliar with his style of command, but they quashed their surprise and made their move. Etie’s first shot sent a pegasus knight careening out of the sky, and two more broke off to make a dive to save their ally, buying time for Alfred to interpose himself where the bridge’s pillars opened up into the night sky. There’d be an impenetrable defence in place by the time they made it back, just as Robin had laid out.
As they advanced, a heavily armoured knight stepped forward to meet them, blocking the thin path through the rubble that littered this side of the bridge. “No one reaches the vaults,” she said, clearly uninterested in discussion when the axe in her hand could resolve the matter. Most likely the enemy leader, then.
Alear shone as she charged in, engaged with Marth. To Robin’s surprise, her strikes failed to activate the ‘weapon triangle’ he had observed earlier, and the rapier, well known for its ability to find weaknesses in heavy armor, was proving ineffective. “What makes this woman different?” he murmured, reaching into his cloak for a particular tome of his.
“Divine One, fall back!” Vander declared. “Whatever else happens, you must survive this!”
“I can’t!” she shouted. “I have to save Lumera. I have to save my mother! I need to keep my promise to her!” Narrowly sidestepping another attack, she raised her blade to the sky. “Fate has brought us here!” the Divine Dragon cried, desperation tingeing her voice.
Her blindingly fast flurry of strikes forced the knight back a step, but the grimace on her face spoke more of aggravation than injury. Alear’s form flared again as her transformed state ended, and the commander bashed her with a hefty backswing at just the right moment, sending her sprawling.
Emblem Marth reappeared just as the knight raised her axe to deal the killing strike, the hero-king’s spirit unprepared to save his friend. The horror in his eyes was mirrored on Vander, Clanne and Framme’s faces.
“Time to tip the scales!”
KRA-KOOM.
When everyone blinked the spots out of their eyes, there was nothing but a scorch mark where the enemy leader once stood. They turned to Robin, a tome still sparking with power in his hand, the smell of ozone heavy in the air.
At the awestruck looks on their faces, he frowned. “Sorry, everyone. I wasn’t going to take chances with Alear’s life on the line, but that was definitely too much. You could’ve gotten hurt.”
Alear sat up, woozy, and Framme ran over to heal her. “There’s no time,” she mumbled, her gaze refocusing and voice clearing as the healing magic took effect. “The Ring Vault. My mother. Let’s go, as soon as Framme says I’m okay.”
Robin looked back. At the sight of their leader being utterly wiped from the face of Elyos, most of the enemy were fleeing. One soldier made eye contact with him and dropped her sword like it was a hot iron before making a break for it. Alfred, Boucheron and Etie had managed to manoeuvre themselves onto the other side of the bridge, forming a solid rearguard against the remainder. Alfred raised his lance to Robin to signal they were fine.
“That should be enough for now, Divine One,” Framme said, lifting her staff away. “You need to stay awake until I can do a full examination, and you’ll need bed rest once that’s done, but we can go.”
Alear stood and began to half walk, half run to the Ring Vault, her retainers and Robin in tow.
—
The magic in the Ring Vault was thick in the air, even compared to when Robin had been there earlier to meet Lucina. Watching the small figure, draped in a dark robe patterned with magenta symbols, teleport around the room trading blows with Lumera in her dragon form, the source of that magic became clear. It was uncannily similar to his battles against the empowered Validar, now that he thought about it.
As Alear charged forward to save her mother, the figure turned. Just the bottom half of her face was visible, but that was enough to see a cruel little smile. “I’ve had enough of this,” the enemy stated, her voice the same poisonously sweet tone that Aversa had affected during his conflicts with Plegia. “Time to die.”
A cage of dark, thunderous magic manifested around the younger Divine Dragon, eliciting a voiceless cry from Lumera as she pushed her daughter to safety, only to be drawn into the eye of the storm. “MOTHER, NO!”
Robin reached for his Thoron tome, only to find himself empty-handed. Casting about in confusion, he caught sight of the enemy mage again. The book of his most powerful thunder magic was disintegrating between her fingertips, and her cruel little smile was gone, replaced instead with lips pursed in deeply controlled frustration.
“I don’t know what you’re doing here,” she said, voice taut, “but I recommend not annoying me like you just did.” She held out a hand to reveal four rings, including one he’d seen earlier today - the Ring of the Princess Exalt. “If you ever want to see your precious Lucina again,” she continued, “you should pick the winning side.” With that, she teleported away.
Robin had no shortage of questions on his mind, but all of that could wait. The dark storm had abated, and Lumera had reverted to her manakete form, but she was gently pushing Framme’s healing staff away from her despite her injuries. “Thank you, dear child, but it’s far too late for that. I knew my time was coming when my daughter finally awoke, even if I do wish it had been longer.”
“Mother,” Alear wailed, struggling with unfamiliar emotion. “We just met again. How am I supposed to go on without you?”
“Alear,” Lumera murmured. “I spent a millennium granting you my power so that you could wake up, to stand on your own. So that you could be the Divine Dragon when my time came to an end. My love will be with you, always.”
“Mother…”
Lumera shifted, just slightly, and even that effort seemed monumental. “Vander, Clanne, Framme. I know my daughter is in good hands with you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your years of service.”
Clanne and Framme bowed deeply, eyes beading with tears, while Vander saluted with a hand to his heart.
Her gaze turned to meet Robin’s. “Robin. Take care of my daughter. You know better than most what Fell Dragons are capable of. Trust in her. And let her trust in you.”
He inclined his head. “Of course, Queen Lumera.”
She tilted her head back to face her daughter once more. “Promise me, Alear. Promise me you’ll gather the rings, and stop Sombron, and save Elyos.” With painstaking care, she slid the Ring of the Holy Knight off her finger and into her daughter’s palm.
“I will, Mother!” Alear cried, tears flowing freely and messily. Grasping her hand, she interlocked their little fingers. “A pinkie promise! I promise I’ll gather the rings! I promise I’ll stop the Fell Dragon! I promise to save Elyos!”
“Good,” Lumera breathed, slowly stilling. “I love you, Alear.” Moments passed with only Lumera’s slow breaths and Alear’s sobs filling the air. Robin noted, with a pang, that Lumera had chosen her last words, and now all she could do was wait.
Some time later, Lumera slumped, her last breath leaving her. Clanne and Framme had already been crying a respectful distance away, but her passing seemed to break whatever composure Vander had been holding onto, and the old knight fell to his knees with his head in his hands. Etie and Boucheron stood at the exit, downcast, while Alfred had moved forward to place a gentle hand on Alear’s shaking shoulder, a solemn expression on his face.
Robin stepped away, past Alfred’s retainers, and just like when Emmeryn had passed, he went to look at the stars.
—
The funeral had been hasty, given the circumstances. Alear didn’t seem to have quite finished grieving, but Robin knew what it was like to fight a war with business left unfinished. What did come as a surprise was when she presented him with the Ring of the Holy Knight.
“Are you sure, Divine One?” he asked, gingerly holding the artifact between thumb and index finger to get a good look at it. “Wouldn’t the crown prince be more trustworthy?”
“Lumera told you to trust in me,” Alear said with a halfhearted smile, before firming her resolve. “And more importantly, she told you to let me trust in you. And this is the best way I can think of doing that.”
Robin nodded, putting the ring on. “I can hardly refuse when you put it like that, Divine One.”
She groaned, just a little. “You can also call me Alear, thank you. I really don’t like that title. I managed to bargain with Clanne and Framme to at least stick with ‘your grace’, but it’d be nice to have people use my name, you know?”
“Of course, Alear.” Focusing his mind, he declared, “Provide for us, Emblem of the Holy War!”
Emblem Sigurd emerged once again, and Robin experienced what it was like to bond with such a spirit for the first time. It was oddly soothing, actually; perhaps it was just contrasted against having his future Fell Dragon self attempt to possess him, but having another person alongside and within him felt good for a change.
“I hope you are well,” the holy knight said to Alear, a hint of grief on his face. “I, too, promise to see your mission through, in Queen Lumera’s memory. What is our first goal?”
“We sail to Firene,” Alear explained. “Prince Alfred first came here seeking the Divine Dragon’s aid against the rising threat of the Corrupted. Once the situation is in hand, we can ask for the kingdom’s assistance, along with their Emblem Ring, the Ring of the Caring Princess.”
“Each of the four surrounding kingdoms has an Emblem Ring, correct?” Robin asked. “We know that mysterious attacker has four, we have two, and each kingdom has one. If so, where are the other two?”
“Most likely kept in hiding by the kingdom or kingdoms Queen Lumera trusted the most,” Emblem Marth replied. “Firene seems likely to have a second. Brodia, the kingdom of might, has been aggressive in recent years, so perhaps not them. Elusia has a great deal of mystical knowledge, but it is known for its worship of the Fell Dragon, so if a second kingdom has more rings, it would most likely be Solm.”
“Back up a moment,” Robin interrupted. “One of the kingdoms actively worships the Fell Dragon? Why?”
Marth frowned. “From my understanding, it is a belief driven by dualism, that the nature of both humans and dragons is one of good and evil, and to destroy or reject the Fell Dragon is to live a half life. To understand and accept evil does not mean to become it, or to inflict it upon others.”
Alear self-consciously toyed with the strands of her red and blue hair, blinking her heterochromatic red and blue eyes. “That makes a lot of sense, actually. At least as a metaphor. Didn’t the actual Fell Dragon try to destroy the entire world?”
“Yes,” Robin and Marth both said, before looking at each other.
“Anyway,” Robin hastily continued, “we’re off to Firene, to prevent that!”
“Right!” Alear confirmed.