Chapter Text
The continent held its breath.
War was an eternal whisper on the wind. Every little dispute across borders turned into a skirmish, threatened a declaration of war.
Nohr and Hoshido, the two greatest powers, loathed one another. Every little nation nestled between them felt it.
And yet, the acute threat had receded. With the death of Nohr's old king, a new era of tender peace had arrived.
Something should have happened. Something should have happened, yet it all dove beneath the waves in a fateful incident, twenty years ago.
In which one little princess wasn't found. She simply walked away.
Don't stand too close to the sea. The tide always comes in.
Within the Dukedom of Izumo, pretending tensions didn't exist was a national pasttime. After all, the people were protected by a prophetic archduke. If war were to come, he'd simply predict it, and guide them to peace.
So the people thought, at least, when pressed to think of it. They forgot that the archduke wasn't bestowed prophecies by the gods, but had to ask. The man had grown so comfortable as things were, that he had not asked the gods in quite a while. And so, even he had not expected the events unfolding on his doorstep.
It'd been just another day.
A day in which Kana was sitting in his mother's classes. It was his mother who minded all the children in the neighborhood; teaching them reading, writing, and mathematics. Kana had had... some trouble with it, but now that he'd learned, he stopped listening to his mother talk and instead got to read.
Tucked into the back of the classroom into the reading nook, Kana dove into fairy tales. Dragons, knights, princesses! Heroic actions and justice! Cool fights! Yes, it was those tales Kana liked best. To a boy his age, nothing was cooler than a knight. Indeed, Kana was a normal boy living with a normal family – his mother, father, and older brother – within the peaceful little duchy of Izumo.
So absorbed was he, he didn't hear the knock on the door. Only when his mother already opened the door and the entire room held its breath did he put down his book.
The man at the door was unfamiliar to Kana. First, his gaze stuck in the striped furs worked into the man's pants, then on the simply massive bow strapped to his hip. After wondering whether the man was some sort of warrior, Kana finally saw his face.
He looked... well, Kana couldn't place it, but the man had the pressed mouth of someone trying to keep a neutral expression, and brows furrowed with tension. Yet it was not apprehension, necessarily. He was... excited.
Curiosity piqued, Kana left the reading nook, making his way past gawking children. As his mother had her back turned to Kana, he would never see her hesitation when the man quietly introduced himself, nor hear her gasp when he stated the reason for his visit.
"...do look like her," Kana grew close enough to hear over the other chatter in the room. "There's no doubt in my mind now."
"And you're certain you don't have me confused with anyone else? Ah," Corrin gazed at her child, now peeking at the familiar stranger behind her legs.
"Say hello, Kana."
"Hi!"
The man raised one hand in greeting. "...Hello."
"This," Corrin began, one hand ruffling Kana's hair, "is Kana. My... Kana, which is it today?"
Kana thought for a moment, because that question always made his insides feel squishy. "Daughter!"
Corrin nodded. "Kana, my daughter. I've an older son as well, but he's doing repairs at home today."
The man did a very bad job of smiling politely, but he at the very least tried. "That's... nice. I've got a son of my own back home. He's... the light of my life."
Only as he spoke of his son did the man's smile turn genuine, and Kana thought he didn't seem so bad. But her mother was still... happy and afraid. It was weird, and Kana didn't like it. Not at all, so she clung tighter to her mother's leg and leaned into Corrin's touch.
"We really ought to speak in private," Corrin said, and gestured to the classroom with her free hand.
The man nodded, and Corrin closed the door, fully stepping into the hallway.
After all, Mama was often wary, and had told Kana to be the same, of anyone who'd come knocking. Moreso if they knew her name.
"Kana." Corrin's tone was more than enough to convey Kana wasn't meant to be part of this conversation. Kana kept clinging to her like a limpet, still conflicted over what this guy wanted with her mother.
"It's alright," he said, so Corrin lead them all further into the hallway, away from where listening ears might be pressed to the doors.
"Did you know?" he asked.
"Yes," Corrin replied, terse.
"Then why didn't you come back?" The man's mad, and trying not to be. He caught himself raising his voice, and hammered it flat with a glance to Kana, even if he couldn't hide his grip clenching the furs around his waist.
"I couldn't. When Kaze told me, I... I thought about it. Even if Nohr would have me executed, if I returned to you instead... I might've had to..."
"To fight them. The ones who took you from us."
"They're still my family."
"Even if you haven't seen them in years?"
"...You're my family, too."
Family? Kana thought, because her family was, all things considered, quite small. Her Papa had none, and her Mama never talked about hers. But the snippets Kana did get, secondhand through Dwyer more than anything, was that they were Nohrian. This was a bad thing to some people, so Kana never brought it up around anyone who looked like they came from Hoshido.
This man obviously did, though.
Before Kana could ask, however, thundering footsteps interrupted them.
The door to the schoolhouse was torn open by Dwyer, looking more a mess than usual.
"M-Mother," he heaved more than said, sparing only a brief glance for the visitor, "the house, it's–"
"Oh, honey, what's wrong?" Corrin dislodged Kana and jogged to meet with Dwyer in the middle. She gave him a hug and stroked his hair, which he did not reciprocate.
"Mother." Dwyer gathered himself with one last gulp of air, pushing Corrin away. "Someone's broken into the house. Dad's fighting them off. I–I don't know who it is, but they looked Nohrian."
Corrin stiffened. As did the visitor.
Any hesitation on Corrin's face vanished. "Dwyer, stay with your sister." She turned to her visitor. "Would you be willing to fight by my side?"
He'd already drawn his bow. "We'll talk later."
"It's a promise."
And then, the two were out the door, leaving Kana behind. Well, she couldn't have that! After all, she'd also been learning the sword from her mother, so–
"Oh no you don't."
Dwyer bodily blocked her path.
"Nuh uh," Kana said.
"Yuh uh," Dwyer said. "You heard her. ...Trust her. For now. Go inside." Something Kana couldn't recognize hid in his gaze. Something a lot like fear. "We can't handle this."
When he opened the door to the classroom, he was immediately met with cries of "It's that guy!" "Coffee boy!" and the one child who actually remembered his name. He'd dropped by often enough to be... recognizable.
"Yeah, yeah. Hi everyone. Corrin had to step out for business. Don't kill each other."
Dwyer had also been asked to watch the children for Corrin on more than one occasion, in which he simply let them do whatever they wanted and instead took a nap in the storage closet, which was fine by everybody. Kana didn't want to wait, though. Not when her Mama and Papa were in danger. She pouted aggressively at Dwyer.
"No is no, Kana. We can't help."
"That's quitter talk!"
He remained impassive. Switching tracks, Kana continued with, "...Can I get my training sword? Juuuust in case danger gets here?"
Dwyer looked to the door. The wooden door of the wooden building. That any sufficiently determined mage could definitely break through. "Okay, fine. You get your sword, and I'll grab a staff from the infirmary. But come back inside right after. And if you see a stranger, especially an armed one, you run. Promise me that, Kana."
"I'll run. Promise."
He sighed. "I reiterate, you are coming back here after you get your sword. No running after Mother."
"Sir, yes sir!"
With official approval, Kana ran to the far side of the classroom, past the gaggle of gazing children, to softly kick open the door into the yard. Much time had been spent toiling away in the humble dirt patch behind the school house, but all it meant to Kana right now was extra distance to sprint across. Her nose twitched. An odd smell hung in the air, spurring Kana on even more.
Her Mama didn't let Kana into the storage shed alone. A padlock decorated the old shed, set to keep out any noisy students from grabbing weapons to hit each other with during recess.
But the trove within was exactly what Kana needed right now, and she did not have the time to look for any sort of key. She scrunched her nose in thought for a moment, until landing on the window, long and thin, on the upper half of the shed's back wall.
Thin, yes, but perhaps not thin enough to keep out a child.
Kana jumped with as much force as her legs could muster, barely grabbing hold of the window's ledge. All her training had paid off as she dragged herself up. She encountered more difficulty in leveraging the cover open, until she saw the pitch dark within. Kana squeezed through the gap, wood tearing at her clothes, only to tumble inside with a thud.
"Ow." That hurt her knee. But one little scrape wasn't going to stop her now, with her goal in reach.
A wooden naginata, a yumi with arrows with soft tips, and that well-worn sword... Kana scanned the variety of practice weapons within, landing on that very sword. That dull sword Kana had practiced with even on her own, struggling to remember the forms her mama had shown her. Even when she hated sitting still for lessons in the classroom and all the letters danced in front of her eyes, she loved the sword. Just moving with as much force as she could muster.
And... And being a step closer like the knights from her fairytales. Of being strong, being a hero, like Mama was.
Kana passed by the training sword, deeper into the dark. Only scattered rays of the setting sun wormed their way through the slats. Somewhere in here, between the dust and cobwebs, her mama had hidden... a blade she told Kana to never touch. A real one. So if Kana just took a sheath, how would Dwyer know what blade's inside?
So she looked, forcing herself to be thorough, to stop her gaze from darting everywhere else. Mama's real blade... surely tucked into the back somewhere... Kana stopped at a curved sheath in a heap of old equipment. Dusty, abandoned, with... a foreboding air. An otherworldly air.
The eye on its hilt seemed to gaze at Kana. It called to her hand, beyond the grime encasing it. Despite how large the blade was compared to Kana's body, it felt natural in her grip. Not a very heroic looking weapon, but it would do.
And above all, it was sharp.
With a weapon secured in a sheath on her belt, Kana took a running leap back up to the window. Thanks to the sword's jagged shape, the sheath suited a broadsword more than a one-handed weapon. It knocked into the wall, too loud in the quiet evening. By the time she'd returned to the classroom, ducking past everyone gawking at her new sword, Dwyer stumbled back in with both a Heal staff and a Bloom Festal, like he couldn't decide which to take and simply grabbed both.
"Right, now what," he grumbled. "Thank you for not running off."
Kana waited, patiently, only tapping her foot a little bit and trying really hard to keep her fingers of the sword's sheath at her hip, nearly scraping the floor. She waited for the inevitable, which was that Dwyer sat in the teacher's seat and propped his head on his hands to watch the children. They'd all learned over all of Dwyer's plays at being substitute that badgering him with questions was all for naught, so they had turned to various games to keep themselves entertained.
She waited, as Dwyer yawned, despite the electric energy in the air. Despite her thoughts circling how much she wanted to run out and help her mama, right now. Kana's not as old as Dwyer, but she's older than all the other kids in the classroom, which meant she's the strongest. She wanted to rush into the dusk and fight like a true knight, protecting the princess from harm.
Gradually, Dwyer hunched over. When he gave in and rested his head in his hands, perhaps closing his eyes for just a single moment, Kana did exactly that.
From her post at Dwyer's back, she ducked out of his reach, ignored his cry of "Kana! Hey! Stop! Please!", and sprinted through the door, through the hallway, out of the school house. The sun set golden on Izumo, dying the sky as red as the flames winding their way through the village. That smell from the yard had been smoke.
Kana's home was burning.