Chapter Text
In the mostly barren plains of No-man’s Land, widely known to house the Joker population, stood, or rather, shook from terror, the Jack of Hearts, Feliciano.
“This place is really scary,” Feliciano whispered. Just then, in the distance, a howl pierced the air.
“Sir,” One knight said, his voice only mildly trembling, “Are you sure we should continue?”
Feliciano would like to say a hundred times “no”, but he knew that if he turned back now, he wouldn’t be able to stand the look of disappointment on his King’s face.
“Ye-yes!” Feliciano cleared his throat. He tried to remember the reassurances he was told before he left.
“Everything will be fine, Feliciano.” King Ludwig said. “I would never send you or any of my men into harm’s way.”
“O-okay, but,” Feliciano didn’t want to disagree with his king, as a ruler or as a friend. He knew Ludwig was a good leader. “I heard that No-man’s Land has a lot of wild beasts. If it's only me and a few knights…”
Before Ludwig could respond, the queen spoke up.
“As King Ludwig has said, everything will go fine. I foresaw it.” Queen Kiku says.
Ludwig looks at him in surprise, while Feliciano practically jumps for joy.
“You saw into the future for me!? Thank you Kiku- I mean, Queen Kiku!”
Right! The Queen, Kiku, was an oracle. He can occasionally see into the future, though his vision is limited and isn’t set in stone. Ludwig explained how the ability worked, but Feliciano didn’t fully understand, so he just remembers that Kiku’s visions are mostly right.
And he foresaw all going well for Feliciano in his quest for diplomacy.
“The King and Queen sent us here on a mission.” Feliciano placed his hand over his heart in salute. “So let’s do it!”
“Yeah!”
Well at least that cheered up his entourage, but Feliciano was still afraid of the beasts. He would trust his friends and the knights sent to protect him. Nothing could go wrong!
“EEEeeeeaaaaahhh!”
Feliciano ran for his life as some of the knights held off a bear-like magical beast. The knights were doing fairly well against the creature, seeing as magical beasts had a certain level of magical resistance, but the knights were growing exhausted.
Why had he agreed to this mission! Feliciano internally wailed. He knew it was because he could hardly say no to his King and Queen, especially when it came to diplomatic missions. They often praised Feliciano for his ability to understand complex emotions and get to the heart of many issues.
But this was too much! Feliciano was not great with spells and had mostly relied on his older brother for healing. He wished he had brought Lovino along…
“Sir Feliciano, look!” One of the knights pointed at a brick structure a few feet away. “That must be it! The entrance to the Joker camp!”
Feliciano ran towards the structure, which turned out to be an old well. Feliciano didn’t know how anyone could use this to go underground. There were no steps! No runes! Not even a bucket!
“Please!” Feliciano shouted into the well. “Someone help us! We’re from the kingdom of Hearts and we come in peace! Please, just help us!”
A loud cry erupted from behind Feliciano. He turned to see that they had sent the bear creature running, but a large lizard-like creature had the knights on defense. Out of the eight knights, three lay injured with another performing a healing spell.
The leader of the small group of knights gave a loud war cry, using the spell Amplification. The other knights responded in kind, reading themselves for battle.
Feliciano could do nothing but watch as the knights began their attack. He desperately wished he could do something. He failed to notice the strange elongating shadow.
“Hey!”
Feliciano screamed, and teetered over, almost falling into the well if it wasn’t for a hand reaching out to steady him.
“Wh-wha…” Feliciano could barely muster a sentence. The newcomer who startled him and saved him had just appeared out of a shadow! He had never heard of such a thing!
“Hey,” the stranger said again, removing his hand from Feliciano’s shoulder.
The longer Feliciano stared at the man, the stranger things became. Was that a tail? He was so astonished that he barely heard the stranger’s next few words.
“You said, you’re from Hearts, right?” The man said, grinning. “If I help you, you should totally let me meet your king. We have a deal?”
Feliciano saw no issue with this, though he would later be scolded by Lovino for making such a stupid agreement. The Jokers, officially, didn’t belong to any kingdom and had varying allegiances. This Joker could be planning to use the meeting as a chance to kill the King or Queen. The kingdom of Hearts didn’t need to experience the death of another ruler so soon.
“Deal!” Feliciano practically shouted. The man’s grin became a genuine smile.
“Awesome.” the man said. He turned to face the struggling knights. “Leave this to me. The kids will take you and the others to safety.”
“Kids-?”
Before Feliciano could finish his question, he was swallowed by darkness.
The man… looked familiar, though Feliciano couldn’t remember the last time he had met someone with pitch black eyes and white hair. For a moment, when the man pulled Feliciano back from falling into the well, he could have sworn the man’s eyes were red.
Red eyes were rare and special in Hearts. The only person Feliciano had personally met with red eyes was the prince, but that was years ago. And he was dead.