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“Oh wow,” Elise said, smiling brightly as Ryoma tucked the last stem into place, finishing the flower crown. “You’re getting really good at these, Ryoma!”
“Only with your help, my lady,” he said softly, smiling back.
She giggled. “You can just call me Elise, you know. We’re getting married in a few days, after all!”
His heart warmed at those words, especially as he glanced at her left hand, where a slender golden ring rested on her third finger. “As you wish, Elise.”
“Great!” she said, hopping up from her place in the middle of the flowers they’d picked. “Now, I crown thee Prince Ryoma, soon-to-be husband of the beautiful Princess Elise.” He chuckled as she placed her own exquisite circlet of flowers on his head. “There you are. Careful, it’s delicate.”
“I shall wear your garlands with pride,” he said softly. Elise giggled again, sinking back down into the flowers with a radiant smile. That was the beauty of his fiancee, the youngest princess of Nohr: despite the bleakness of her country of birth, she was as bright as the sunniest day in Hoshido. No matter how insurmountable the tasks ahead of them seemed or how long the war dragged on, just looking at her lifted his spirits.
“How has your day been?” Ryoma asked softly, taking her hand in his own.
“Oh, it’s been great,” she said, her voice perky. “Azura gave me a really pretty present, you know.”
“And what might that be?” Ryoma asked, raising an eyebrow. While Azura was kind, perhaps more so than most people realized, she wasn’t the type to usually buy gifts for others.
“Actually…” Elise’s smile shrank by just the smallest bit. “Your mother, Queen Mikoto, made it for me. It’s a kimono.”
Mother made Elise a kimono? Ryoma’s eyes widened. “I had no idea.”
“Yeah,” Elise said, her voice soft. “Azura said that when she was taken to Hoshido, she was really sad, because she wouldn’t get to see me grow up. Queen Mikoto saw her crying and gave her the kimono to give to me when we met again someday. And we did!” Her fingers tightened around Ryoma’s hand. “It’s beautiful. I wish I could thank her.”
A lump rose in Ryoma’s throat. “As do I.”
For a moment, the field in the Astral Plane was silent. Then: “Ryoma? Could you… Could you tell me about her? About your mother?”
He smiled faintly. “Of course. I wish you could meet her, Elise. She would have taken to you instantly.”
“Really?” Elise asked, her violet eyes wide.
“Mother loved everyone,” Ryoma said softly. “When she married my father, she could have chosen to be distant towards us. After all, we were not her children, and she had an infant daughter to take care of. But she showered us with the same love and affection that she offered Corrin. I will never forget her patience and compassion towards us.” A smile quirked up his lips. “But, that wasn’t to say that Mother was perfect.”
“What do you mean?” Elise asked, leaning forward in interest.
“Well, Mother was a fair bit… absentminded,” Ryoma admitted, his smile widening. “I remember all of us taking a trip to a nearby lake. When we went swimming, Mother forgot to take off her slippers. She lost them in the water and had to walk home barefoot.”
Elise giggled. “Oh no!”
“And,” Ryoma added, chuckling at the memory, “Mother would sometimes forget that she was already holding a pair of chopsticks. So she would take another pair and use all four at once.”
“Wow,” Elise said, her voice awestruck. “I can barely use two! She’s a special lady!”
He chuckled. “You’ll master them eventually, I’m sure. But, if I am to be completely honest…” The levity of the moment faded as he was lost in thought. “My mother… had her dark moments as well.”
“Dark moments?” Elise asked, almost whispering.
“When Corrin was taken from us, we were all heartbroken,” Ryoma said softly. “But Mother took it the hardest. For the most part, she endured the grief with grace and dignity. Yet there were days when she could barely attend to her duties as queen. She would spend hours in Corrin’s old room, pouring over her toys and pictures. We could barely coax her out for meals.” He stared at the flowers, his heart heavy. “She missed Corrin so much, and so when they reunited, we hoped that everything would return to the way it was. That we wouldn’t regain just our lost sister, but our mother’s happiness as well. And then…” His throat closed off.
“I’m sorry,” Elise whispered, her eyes sorrowful. “She sounds… wonderful.”
“She was,” Ryoma murmured. Exhaling slowly, he raised his head. “May I ask about your mother?”
For some reason, Elise looked shocked. “Huh?”
He smiled. “She must be a wonderful person to have raised such a fine woman.”
“Oh.” Elise did not smile. “I… I wouldn’t say that.”
“Elise?” he asked, frowning at the expression on her face.
She smiled brightly, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “My mother was beautiful. Well, all of our mothers were beautiful, I guess. Leo tells me that Father could charm the prettiest woman with just a few love stories!”
“All of your mothers?” he asked tentatively.
“Yeah,” she said. “Oh, didn’t you know? Xander and Camilla and Leo and I all have different mothers.”
His eyes widened. “I… I wasn’t aware.”
“That’s okay,” she said cheerily. “Xander is the son of Queen Katarina, Father’s first wife. But she died shortly after Xander was born. Father was heartbroken, so he married again to Queen Arete. But, I guess he was really, really lonely, so he started taking concubines.”
Ryoma’s throat grew thick. While taking a concubine wasn’t particularly illegal in Hoshido, it was a distasteful practice, scorned by most of the nobility. To be the child of a concubine was considered the same as being a royal bastard. “And, your mother was…”
“A concubine,” Elise said innocently. “She loved Father so much, she wanted to stay with him forever! So, he made her a concubine so she could stay in the castle. She was the last one he ever took, because the others were so much trouble. Camilla says that there was a lot of fighting, back in the day. They were so mean to each other and the other children.” She sighed. “I’m glad I was the last one. I’d hate to fight with any of my siblings.”
Gods above. How… How can she speak so calmly about this? The fact that Elise wasn’t overly concerned or upset, but spoke as if this were normal, shook him to the very core. “Then, she’s still alive?”
“No,” Elise murmured, staring down morosely at the bunches of blossoms around them. She twisted a daisy between her fingers, snapping the stem. “She died when I was seven. The healers tried to keep me away because she was sick with consumption. But, when they knew that she was going to go… They let me in. I took her hand and begged her to stay with me. But she didn’t listen. She just kept on calling out for Father. It was like I wasn’t even there.”
Ryoma was speechless.
“She only cared about Father. Not about me,” Elise continued, twisting the daisy tighter and tighter. Suddenly, her head snapped back up, a beautiful grin on her lips. “But it’s okay! My siblings care about me, and so do you! That’s all that matters, right?” She cocked her head. “Um, Ryoma? Are you okay?”
How? he wondered, his heart aching. How can she smile like this?
Elise carried a light with her that could illuminate the good in everyone’s soul. Yet, perhaps naively, he’d never expected for her to carry darkness inside of her as well. Her smile could cover up so much. And as he stared at her, at the confusion in her eyes and the hesitant smile still lingering on her face, he felt guilt twist his stomach. I should have known better.
Silently, he leaned forward and pulled her into his embrace, holding her close. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. “Elise, if I had known...”
“It’s okay,” she said softly, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her face rested in the crook of his shoulder, her nose rubbing against his skin. “I’m not sad about it anymore.”
The wetness on her eyelashes told him a different story.
“It’s perfectly fine to be sad,” he murmured, stroking her golden hair. “Elise, if you are ever struggling… Please, come and find me. Don’t try and hide your sorrow under a smile. I will do my best to support you, day or night, rain or shine.” He hesitated, then kissed her cheek. “And I swear to you, I will be with you always.”
“Really?” she whispered. “You’ll stay with me forever?”
His lips pressed to her forehead. “Anything for you, my lady.” With a smile, he released her from his embrace. “Now, with this humble circlet of flowers, I crown you Queen Elise of Hoshido.” Carefully, making sure to not accidentally knock off any petals with his clumsy fingers, he nestled the crown of bright blossoms in Elise’s hair. “May her reign be blessed.”
She grinned, a true smile this time, and his heart squeezed out an extra pulse at the warmth of her expression. “Thank you, Ryoma.” Her fingers closed around his hand, and he couldn’t help but smile as she brought his palm to her cheek, nestling her face against it. “Ryoma?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think… I can wear the kimono your mother made me at the wedding?”
A lump rose in his throat as he imagined Elise standing at the altar with him, dressed in Hoshidan attire instead of a white Nohrian gown. “Don’t you wish for a traditional Nohrian wedding dress?”
“I guess I did,” she said, her voice wistful. “But now, I don’t think so. Queen Mikoto made that kimono for me. And… I want your mother to be a part of our wedding. It just seems right.” Her eyes were tentative. “Is that okay?”
His eyes were suddenly wet. “That… would be wonderful.”
“Then it’s a deal! And we’ll always be together,” she said happily. “Promise?”
“I promise, Elise,” he said.
And he sealed that promise with a kiss.