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Wind swirled around Merric as the manakete in front of him crashed to the ground, screeching in agony before its cries dissipated into silence. And silence continued to fill the atmosphere around Merric as he ran forward, passing the dead earth dragon and those roaring and breathing fire towards the remainder of their army without so much as a flinch. Merric could only hear his own heartbeat pounding, panicked as the din around him blurred and his eardrums numbed.
Then, he saw her.
One bishop alone in white. Her dress was torn in shreds by her bare feet, both bloody and bruised from the shackles keeping her hostage. Her skin pale from malnourishment, each scar, fresh and rotting, gleamed in the dim light of the Dragon’s Table. The blue of her hair, once full and flourishing, now lay brittle and lifeless as it trailed down her back.
“Elice…” Merric gulped back the whimper in his throat and screamed her name. “Elice!”
The princess was unresponsive as she stood just beyond the threshold of Medeus’s holding chamber. Merric grasped onto her arms, his eyes watering at feeling her paper-thin skin, seeing her sunken cheeks and barely parted eyes, no strength to be found within. But he held her close, holding onto the sliver of hope that Elice would hear him, feel him, anything to help her come back to him.
Trembling, Merric caressed her cheek, his fingers delicate as they brushed Elice’s protruding cheekbone. The sapphire sparkle in her eyes was long gone, now replaced by a deep red as the possessed princess spoke her first word.
“Slaughter…”
Merric’s throat tightened, but he needed to be strong, to carry enough strength for the both of them as he cried out. “Princess Elice! It’s me, Merric. Snap out of it! I-I studied magic ferociously, all so that I could protect you… I’m sorry… I failed. I couldn’t be by your side when you needed me most. Elice… Please. Please…”
But no recognition was shown on Elice’s face. Her arms remained limp in Merric’s hands and the wind mage nearly lost his grip on her in his grief. He held onto her tighter, pulling the princess into his chest and cradling her close. “No, no, no… Please, no...”
Elice’s forehead fell onto his shoulder. “Medeus…will kill you all…”
Merric couldn’t keep back his whimper this time, mewling into the darkness caving in on them. Gulping back his oncoming sob, he tore himself away from Elice and held her at arm’s length. He cupped her cheeks in his palms, desperate to see a flicker of life in those dull red eyes. He shook her gently, his bottom lip beginning to quiver as his tears mingled in the sweat on his cheeks. “Elice… Y-You can’t… You… I… I never got to… I-I love…”
Merric carded his fingers through her hair one final time, the entirety of his person numb as he watched each cerulean strand fall onto Elice’s lifeless face.
“Elice… Come back to me!”
…
Merric’s eyes snapped open. He choked on the gasp clawing its way up his throat as he forced himself up to sitting. Fresh tears clung to the corners of his lashes as grief pitted itself deep into his stomach. His mind swirled with nausea. And her.
A sob ripped through his chest.
It was dark in the bedroom, and Merric could do nothing but grip onto his bed blanket, his knuckles nearly breaking open the seams of the fabric. Painfully, he tried to contain every hiccup that followed. Tried to keep back the feeling of emptiness in his hands, the ghost of a love that will never come.
But he clung to the truth of his failure. His failure to protect—
“…Merric?”
Startling badly at the gentle voice, Merric snapped his head to his left. His nightmare dwindled ever so slowly from his mind, but fear still tangled itself in every pumping vein of his body. Cautiously, he glided his hand over his bed sheets.
He let out a shaky gasp when a smaller hand rested over his own.
“Darling…it’s the middle of the night. What’s fretting you?” The voice spoke again.
Merric couldn’t see, but the voice was crystal clear in the dark. And as its echo lingered in the silence of his bedroom, Merric whimpered after it in longing. He then felt movement by his side, the sheets rustling around him before a drawer was heard being pulled open. But the sudden clacking of items being placed above a nightstand began to quicken his heartbeat. Panic gnawed at Merric’s chest as he still couldn’t see what was happening. Where did the voice go?
Then, a flicker of candlelight revealed the concerned face of his wife.
“E-Elice…?” Merric choked out, his relief mingling with disbelief.
Frowning, Elice reached her hand up to hold her husband’s cheek, her worry growing when he flinched slightly at the touch. She could see and feel his tears she brushed away with her fingertips, Merric’s lower jaw trembling beneath her thumb.
“It’s me…” She soothed, looking Merric over and observing the tension in his demeanor. Her eyes then flickered to his, and that’s when she recognized the panicked terror within them.
“Nightmare?” She whispered.
Merric brought up a shaky hand and gripped hers on his cheek.
“I-I’m sorry.” His voice cracked.
“No, no…” Elice cooed, her brows drawing in anguish when Merric bowed his head, no longer able to look at her. Tenderly, she brought her other hand up and combed her fingers through his messy green strands, knotted from his restless sleep. “You have no reason to apologize.”
She then pressed a kiss to Merric’s forehead when he sniffled. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Merric squeezed Elice’s hand.
Understanding, Elice scooted closer to his side, molding her body into his hunched one. “Alright… Deep breaths, my love.”
Merric listened as his wife breathed in and out above him, her chest falling and rising against his back. Tentatively, he followed along with her. And suddenly, he was pulled back into his childhood and every forest trail him, Elice, and Marth walked through together. How, after every trek, Merric became too frail to take the final few steps through the garden archway leading back to the Altean castle. Eyes squinted, he would bend over, hands on his knees, and watch the blur of Elice walking up to him, her training staff ready in hand...
“Stand up straight, Merric. Don’t hunch.” Elice instructed kindly, her finger tapping his chin.
The boy whined, but did as told. He gasped in a breath when he brought his head back up, his eyes squeezing shut at the ache in his chest. “…S-Sorry, Princess.”
“Oh, Merric, there is no need to apologize.” Elice reassured, keeping him steady. “Focus. Put your arms above your head and breathe in and out.”
Merric nodded, raising his arms above his head and practicing Elice’s breathing exercises. He then shyly opened one eye, his cheeks dusting pink upon seeing the young princess smiling at him, her training staff held out in front of her.
“Now, I’ve been practicing some healing spells to aid in fatigue. But don’t fret, I have almost mastered them! So, you should be feeling well in a moment. Just hold very still…” Elice chattered happily before beginning to focus…
“Better?” Elice whispered.
Coming back to the present moment, Merric slowly lifted his head, his watery eyes coming to rest on his wife’s gentle blue. Sheepishly, he swiped at them with a nod. Elice smiled fondly at him, and Merric relaxed upon seeing it.
“Thank you.” He whispered.
Elice kissed his cheek and rubbed a soothing hand along his back. “You don’t need to thank me, Merric. You know that.”
Merric shyly looked at her, shame beginning to tug at his heart as he saw the tiredness in his wife’s eyes. Elice needed her rest, especially as the two of them will be volunteering at the Pales infirmary in the late afternoon tomorrow. He hadn’t meant to wake her, but guilt ate at him as he unconsciously fiddled with the tips of Elice’s long hair that pooled onto the blanket between them. How brittle these blue strands felt in his dream… No. His memory. How Elice fell apart in his arms, body nearly broken, heart shattered…
“Merric?” Elice called, her hand once more on his cheek. This time, Merric hadn’t noticed his tears returning until he felt his wife brushing her thumb beneath his eyes. “Goodness, I haven’t seen you this upset from a nightmare in a while…”
Upon hearing that, Merric shook away his lingering thoughts and tried reining in the rest of his distress, not wanting to worry Elice even further. “I-I’m fine, Elice. I’m… I’m okay. I just need to catch my bearings is…is all…”
Elice raised a brow at him.
Merric huffed and moved to stand.
“It was the Dragon’s Table, wasn’t it?” Elice questioned, her hand gentle as she grasped his arm.
Merric shut his eyes. Slowly, he sat back down on the edge of their bed.
“…It was not your fault, Elice.” Merric whispered.
Elice frowned, releasing his arm. “I didn’t say that it was.”
Merric turned to face her, and willed himself not to become upset again as he looked into her eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes who could do no harm, those eyes that held tenderness for him and everyone Elice loved…
Those eyes now filled with the guilt Merric loathed.
“But I know how you feel.” He began, biting back his quivering lip. “I see the pain, the guilt in your eyes every…every time I struggle with those memories. You know I already cannot bear the idea of you blaming yourself, believing you are…are this burden… Because you’re not, Elice. Not to me! Not to Marth! Not to…to anyone… I don’t… I don’t want to add to that pain whenever I experience an unpleasant dream about…about that moment in our lives…” Merric paused, needing to steady himself when his throat tightened. “Of course I am always going to fear for you because I want—I promised to protect you—because I love you. Gods I do. So much… That’s why I… We can’t… Honey, I can’t…”
Elice came off of her side of the bed and hurried her way over to Merric. Her heart ached watching the way her husband tried to hide himself, bringing his feet up to cling onto the bed rail and shove his palms into his eyes, trying to shield Elice from his grief.
Tenderly, she rested her hand above one of his own, tears welling in her own eyes. “…How do you think I feel every time you blame yourself for me being taken in the first place? Calling yourself a…a failure, because you hadn’t been there in Altea with me at the start of the invasion?”
Merric sniffled and hesitantly looked up at his wife, guilt brimming in his green eyes.
Elice held a hand to his cheek. “I am not saying this in judgement either. Think about this, Merric. We go through this loop every time one of us is upset, and I know neither of us will agree with each other because I…I do blame myself. You’re right. If I hadn’t stayed behind, I may not have been captured, and therefore you would never have these nightmares of me…of me dying in your arms.”
Merric’s face crumpled when Elice hiccupped.
Elice took a gentle seat beside him and curled into his side, sniffling softly as she did so. “I love you, Merric. Despite my own grief, no matter what, I want to care for you. …That sounds familiar, does it not?”
Merric looked down at their bedroom floor, his feet scuffing against the bottom of their mattress. He then let out a shaky breath and pressed a kiss to Elice’s hair, lifting his hand to brush his knuckles beneath her wet eyes. “…Yes, it does. Because I cannot stand to see you hurting, either. I would do anything…anything to alleviate it...anything to take your pain away.”
Elice leaned her head up to kiss Merric softly on the lips, intertwining his hand with her own. “…So, why not let me make you some lavender tea?”
Confused, Merric frowned at his wife. “But…it’s the middle of the night.”
Elice smiled as she kindly wiped Merric’s tears and runny nose with her hand, causing her husband to blush. “A midnight snack never hurt anyone…if done in moderation.”
Merric glanced over Elice’s head to look out their bedroom window. “According to the moon’s position, it is actually two in the morning.”
Elice let out a quiet snort and playfully nudged her smirking husband’s shoulder. “By Naga, Merric, you know what I meant!”
As he laughed along with his wife, Merric felt his tension and fright leaving his body and he leaned more into her side.
Elice kissed his cheek in comfort. “Caramel drizzle?”
Merric smiled fondly at the question, knowing Elice never forgot his childhood sweet tooth for caramel. He shared another kiss with her. “Only if you let me help you prepare it.”
Elice stood from their bed and pulled Merric along, closing the space between them as their lips brushed. Her heart melted in the way her husband’s eyes shimmered jade in the candlelight, his admiration for her a soothing light in the dark. “I suppose I cannot say no to that face…”
Merric chuckled and pressed his lips into hers, finding solace in the gentleness of Elice’s lips on his, her fingertips delicate on his chin as she pulled him in. His hand roamed the nape of her neck, wanting to keep her close, to protect her with every passing moment between them, cradle her, hold her how she held him when he had first woken up from his nightmare…
And love her always.