#chaos-goddess-yune

[elusianknight]

WAS THIS LINE IN THERE BEFORE? (durge, post bhaal nonsense)

Bonus: his reply (AND ALSO HIS SMILE)

(spawn astarion, btw, post cazador quest)

[randomnameless]

Typing about the best wildlife scholar made me realise something -

We know Dheginsea's extremist isolationist and non-interventionist policies were motivated by his wish to stop the propagation of wars, or at least, not to create a situation where the entire continent would be engulfed in War, else Ashera would wake up and erase the population.

Which is what he ultimately believes happened - that's why we fight against him in FE10, because the plot is stupid and cannot have Yune tell him "hi! We were woken by Galdr, Ashera mistakingly believes the inverse!" before his ultimate defeat.

But thinking more about it -

The Three Heroes (tfw Lehran's not part of the gang) made a pact with the Goddesses : they had to ensure 1k years of peace else they would stone Humanity. If they wake up in 1k years and the world is in chaos, they would stone it. If not, then kumbaya.

If they wake up before those 1k years due to war, the world is stone. If they are awoken by Galdr, they should, uh, talk to each other to decide what to do.

To Dheginsea, the only person who could sing the Galdr of Release, Lehran, lost the power to do so when he lost his abilities as a Laguz : ergo, without any possibility to wake the Goddesses up with Galdr, the only way to avoid Ashera's judgment was to avoid wars for 1000 years, even if it means... well, ignoring people suffering and letting them die at your doorstep.

So, Dheginsea, if he revealed the truth about Lehran, would have started a war against Beorcs (there's no way Laguz who know the truth will accept the status quo that if they live too closely with Beorcs they die), and without Galdr : Ashera wakes up "with war" and stones everyone.

If he intervened like Lehran wanted, and had Goldoa stomp Begnion/Beorcs who enslaves Laguz? Ashera wakes up "with war" and stones everyone, since she can't be waken up with Galdr anymore.

Hell, if Dheginsea terminated Ashnard and Daein as he planned too after losing Rajaion and Almedha (what FE10 tells us... but can we seriously believe this when in FE9 he dgaf about the situation?), again we have the same situation : Ashera wakes up due to war and stones everyone.

The only reason why the cast "won" and Tellius isn't stoned anymore is because unbestknown to Lehran, Dheginsea and well, everyone in Tellius, Lehran's branded descendants (who conveniently weren't all wiped out!) can actually sing the Galdr of Release and release Yune, who can circumvent the "Ashera wakes up with war and stone everyone".

-> When Lehran lost his powers and couldn't act as an alarm anymore, the only way to "wake the goddesses before 1k years happen" is with war and their judgment would be to kill everyone.

So Dheginsea had to grit his teeth and accept every fucked up thing that happened in Tellius because Lehran - due to this world's crappy mechanics - cannot "wake up the Goddesses" earlier and ask them to withold their judgment : if there is a war they will kill everyone - they must endure for 1k years, else Tellius is doomed.

Tl;Dr : TFW "make love not war" backfired in Lehran's case, and completely fucked up the covenant they had with the goddesses and if Miccy chocked on a pretzel, Lehran's love for Altina (aka him losing his powers) would have led to Tellius being wiped out even without his own participation.

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

I just realized something. While you said Sephiran isn't trying to end the world, there's still enough chaos going on that it would make sense if after all the arcs (excluding the Gen 2 ones), Ashera wakes up and attempts to end everything. It's the *one* thing that Validar, Manfroy, Thales, and Jedah might agree on working together on.

WAIT, that's giving me an idea. Like, canonically the deal is that if Yune is unsealed by Tellius becoming consumed by war, Ashera will awaken and put an end to the world, but if Yune awoken by someone singing the galdr, then Ashera and Yune will consult with each other on what to do with the world.

So now I'm thinking like, Yune accidentally gets released by Micaiah singing the galdr of release (not knowing exactly what the song is), and then Ashera wakes up and suddenly Sephiran, who was not on any level trying to orchestrate the end the world, has to work with Yune and Micaiah to convince Ashera that the world is worth saving. And specifically I think the funniest way for this to manifest is that, with all the chaos in the world that Ashera can sense, she demands to see the state of the world beyond Tellius, as well. She demands to know what has been happening while she's asleep.

(Micaiah, whispering to Sephiran: "Is the goddess insisting that we take her on a world tour?"

Sephiran: "...yes, I believe so.")

So begins the World's Worst Vacation, where Sephiran, Micaiah, Yune (swapping back and forth between being a bird and bodyjacking Micaiah), Sanaki (who was raised by Sephiran and just found out that Micaiah is her sister and that means this is almost like a family trip and she must come along as well), and Zelgius (who just showed up on the day of departure with a plane ticket and a bag packed) must convince Ashera that the world is worth saving.

This is half a sitcom premise as you cram the six of them into a rental car and they have to drive 12 hours straight across the desert in Jugdral or as Ashera and Yune bump into the gods of other continents who are hanging around, and half a heartwarming recap of all the various plot threads that have happened and how the indominable mortal spirit and people's love for each other has persevered through absolute chaos. Can beorc and laguz live in harmony in Tellius? Can humans and dragons live in harmony across the rest of the world? Harder to answer "no, they can't" after meeting Tormod and Muarim in Daein, or Ike and Ranulf in Gallia, or bumping into Lilith while she's babysitting her part-human niece and nephew in Hoshido. (Shoutout to Kana for attempting to bite a goddess.)

She does put some serious consideration into wiping Fodlan off the map, though. (Shoutout to Balthus for being the first person in recorded history to call a goddess a "milf" to her face.)

[arcelerity]

starter for @nohrslittleflower

Tormod isn't the biggest bookworm in the world, but he's had to do his fair share of studying in recent years. It helps to have a motivation, like honing his ambassadorship skills, or preparing to attend The Officer's Academy.

Today, it's to impress Elise. And to get them a good grade, obviously.

His new friend had been excited to collaborate on this assignment with him, and he'd started telling her about the war against the chaos goddess Yune and, well, that's what they're reenacting now!

(Really, he'd only heard old folk tales about it, but he miiiiiight have implied way more knowledge so. Cram time!)

He's got a stack of books piled in the study room and is writing semi-decipherable notes about the players and order of things on a huge sheet of paper, scribbles and arrows all over the place tying things together. It works pretty well for him, but he's gotta get it into a presentable state for Elise...

...when's she due, again? What time is it? Uh oh. Uh oh!

a swordswoman, a badass lion, and some bald guy walk onto a battlefield

mission: affluence | heavy armor +1

[se-housman]

Chapter 95 ‘Ashera’ is available now, and we only have five chapters left! 

＼(◎o◎)／

In many ways, this is the end. Ashera is the final boss. And yet...it is also the beginning. (If they don’t fail, that is.)

Wattpad | Ao3 | Quotev | MediaMiner

[tacticsroom]

Summoning Focus summary for Mythic Heroes - Yune.

[grimvisionary]

go team chaos!!

[emblcmiisms]

@caraidean liked for a starter!

“How funny~ Here I am in my true form, and I’m still shorter than you~” Yune let out a chuckle after that remark. “You don’t need to be afraid of me, Sanaki. I’ve seen the hard work you’ve done for the people of this world. Carry your head high, and be proud of your achievements.” She then floated over and gave the other girl a gentle pat on the head.

“Well done, Sanaki~ Well done~”

[coffeeemblem]

Yune: Chaos Goddess Wallpaper & Icon Edits!

Feel free to use! Likes and reblogs appreciated!

[first-flower-of-my-house]

I just got Yune to level 40!

[crystalelemental]

“nikolas-sur: "I have done nothing wrong" well thats debatable for say at least and depend if is student Edelgard/Flame Emperor or brave/legendary Edelgard.”

Honestly this does bring up the point that I never specify which Edelgard I’m using when I write these, but it’s always time-skip Edelgard.

And you can’t prove she did anything wrong when her dissidents are dead.

[randomnameless]

Summer Micaiah's chibi page initially had her listed as the leader of the Dawn Brigade as well, but it got fixed after some months, so it's genuinely baffling how they keep fucking up

Feh tries to retcon her as being a super important badass because base Miccy involves having more than a surface reading on tellius and we can't have that.

Remember how Ike is so badass bcs he slayed a goddess and is thus the stronger hero alive ? That sells.

Explaining that Miccy is the vessel of Yune both bcs she's the true apostle and the embodiment of the "change and chaos" Yune promotes as a Branded, or how Miccy tried to fight for the ones she loves without dumping them in their darkest hour at the cost of Fe9 cast's ire because a plot device forces her to care about namelesses... Is too complicated for Feh.

I mean have you seen Feh's most recent "plot"?

[themoomoorn]

Fashionably Late and Silly FEH Brave Series Analysis on Byleth because I have brainrot so help me Glob

This has been scratching my brainbox for a while, so now I'm gonna let it out into this hellvoid.

While the main gimmick of the Brave Unit series is the annual voting poll determining who gets one, they nevertheless follow the same two consistent themes: Legacy, and Growth. The costumes that these Brave Chosen(tm) don are either the pinnacle of their promotions from their games, or they don clothing hearkening to a parent, hero, or an ancestor whose deeds they are trying to emulate.

In order by year, we have:

Brave Ike: Wears Greil's outfit. Part of Ike's development is inheriting his father's mercenary company, and thus his legacy - something he had been reared to do for years. His legacy begins when he accepts taking Princess Elincia under his mercenaries' protection, and because of the outcome of the Mad King's War, the mercenaries under Ike become legendary within a mere three years.

Brave Lyn: Invokes her Blade Lord promotion, but instead wields the bow Mugalir, as bows are bestowed upon her as her secondary weapon. Mugalir is also the Divine Weapon tied to Sacae, and a big point of Lyn's development is embracing her Sacaean pride even when being thrust into the world of the Lycian nobility.

Brave Roy: Wearing his father Eliwood's outfit. Like his father, Roy comes to save his homeland on a grand scale and become the new Marquess Pherae - and he goes even further than his father as his ideal ending not only rids the land of Bern and Zephiel, but also frees the dragon Idunn from her fate as a soulless War Dragon, and also learns the full truth of what mankind had done to dragons during ancient times.

Brave Lucina: Wearing her Great Lord outfit and donning a spear (secondary weapon), signaling the growth she has when spent out of her doomed future with Chrom and the Shepherds. Lucina's gambit of time travel pays off, even when things seem doomed to repeat themselves - as sparing Robin turned out to be the contradictory key to averting Grima's reign of terror.

Brave Hector: Wearing his brother Uther's outfit. Hector is initially reluctant taking on the duties his noble title bears, but once Uther dies, he has no choice but to replace him - and he does so proudly, going above and beyond to protect both his friends and his home. It speaks volumes that he is willing to bear the axe Armads' curse of an early death if it means he can protect those he cares about.

Brave Ephraim: Wearing his father Fado's outfit. Similar to Hector, Ephraim is an irresponsible prince who is forced to reconsider his views on the world and behavior once the Grado Empire is driven out of Renais - one poignant scene is how Seth reminds him that the people of Renais are displeased to have him back, and their cause for celebration is that their puppet ruler (a man named Orson) is dead. The truth about Lyon's turn to darkness further reinforces Ephraim's need to change for the better.

Brave Veronica: This is a rendition of Veronica that lacks the pronounced childish behavior that her story rendition carries, as the "main" Veronica's main goal is the conquest of Askr via enslavement of Heroes, and is willing to side with dangerous, powerful beings to do so. She is still ruthless, but not as destructively so compared to her story counterpart - the only holdover is her love for her older brother Bruno.

Brave Micaiah: Wears the robes of her third-tier class (Light Priestess) and also has Yune, the Goddess of Chaos, residing within her. Micaiah's good intentions of freeing Daein from Begnion leads her down what could have been a dark path, courtesy of the ensnarement of a Blood Pact Pelleas had made with Begnion. Her bond with Yune and the crisis caused by Ashera's awakening steers her in a better direction, allowing for her to help break the pact. Her love of Daein also has her ascend as its queen instead of taking up the position of Begnion's Apostle that was her initial birthright.

Brave Eliwood: Here he's wearing the outfit from his coronation (seen in Blazing Blade's epilogue), and the description invokes his father; He also has elements of his Knight Lord promotion with his horse and his lance (gained as a secondary weapon). While his growth is on a smaller scale, Eliwood nevertheless grows his muster and determination even when his loved ones are killed (quite traumatically!), and it's his kindness combined with his bravery that allows for him and his army to defeat Nergal.

Brave Camilla: This is a Camilla who actually steps up as Nohr's Queen - something that never happens in her home game, as on Birthright she finds herself unsuited to rule and has Leo take up the role as reigning King. Nevertheless, she still grows on Conquest once Garon's true nature comes to light, and she is the fourth of Corrin and Azura's siblings to join their cause on Revelation, accepting the presence of Valla/Touma with relative ease. It isn't farfetched to believe she'd make for some decent kind of leader, given her combat prowess and maternal instincts.

Brave Edelgard: Wears her third-tier class dress, the Emperor (or Kaiserin for maximum imagery if you're playing the Japanese version of the game). Unlike most of the characters here, Edelgard, being the Red Emperor of her game, does not grow as a person - indeed, having Byleth by her side only seems to reinforce her view of the Nabateans needing to be dead, and she has someone with Nabatean blood to hold under her thumb. As it were, her "growth" on Crimson Flower is her actually getting to succeed in her conquest of Fódlan and live a life of luxury afterward, getting to keep both that as well as succeed where her power-hungry father failed.

Brave Dimitri: Wears his third-tier armor of his Great Lord Class. Dimitri's growth among Houses' lords is the most dramatic: After five years of torture, exile, and auditory hallucinations, he is made to atone for his prior misdeeds, but also learns that yes, he is allowed to live for himself and desire for himself, and it's these two traits hand-in-hand that allow him to become the kind yet strong king his father once was, instead of a man whose heart bled so strongly that he grew behaviors that drove him to s*icidal ideation.

Brave Claude: Wears his third-tier armor of his Barbarossa class, which is explicitly cited to be Almyran in its description. Claude maintains some unsavory aspects in achieving his goals, but on Verdant Wind, his fixation on finding truths leads him to a revelation that actually forces him to take pause and determine whether or not he's wholly justified in his approach, especially considering what the Emperor he's fighting against wants. He may still tout some mental superiority and trust issues, but he also shows signs of actually opening up about his Almyran heritage, especially with this armor.

Brave Lysithea: Wears a Gremory dress in her favored colors of purple and white, with said class being most suited to her. Lysithea's growth (or lack thereof if poached on Crimson Flower) is not dramatic, but she nevertheless opts to at least try to fight for a better future, even if it is mainly for her parents' sake. Through her bonds with others, this growth goes further when some come forward to offer her even more, or better yet, help her solve her conundrum with her two Crests.

Brave Marth: Wearing the garb of his ancestor (and idol), Anri. Marth has a classic hero's journey par excellence, beginning as a naïve prince who nevertheless is distraught over the pillaging of both his home kingdom Altea and his adopted home of Talys (with the original games having him almost be more childish, even), growing into an effective and charismatic army leader, then Prince of a suzerain state forced to acknowledge the tyranny of Archanea's new Emperor, to two-time savior of the continent. And unlike his ancestor, whose life ended in tragedy and loneliness, Marth lives on as both lover and beloved.

Brave Eirika: Wears an outfit evocative of her brother Ephraim, but with elements of her own Great Lord promotion. Eirika is forced to grow from a sheltered, peaceful, negotiable princess into a warrior and leader fast, and she adapts with an enviable amount of skill and speed. Even when ensnared by the Demon King's wiles and everyone casting doubt on her, she stands proudly on her own, and in a way, is more deserving to lead Renais than her brother.

Brave Chrom: Wears his Great Lord promotion and dons a spear, much like his daughter Lucina. While Chrom is cited to be a strong, firm militia leader at the start of his journey, he is also brash and can even be cruel. His companionship with Robin and the rapidly changing circumstances around him - especially that of when Plegia invades Ylisse, and there's also that mysterious masked youth to consider - force him into a leadership role where he must cast aside his overly-strong hand in exchange for temperance. Robin's presence assists, and this growth continues two years later with the Valm campaign and the resurrection of Grima.

Brave Seliph: Wears his father Sigurd's Knight Lord garb. If Sigurd's tale is a deconstruction of Marth's story, Seliph's is a full-blown rebuild done to set things right. He has his family's legacy thrust upon him, and the ills of war and imposter syndrome plague him at every corner. He does so proudly, even growing a little along the way when it comes to vengeance.

Now we get to the odd ones out. Brave Alm (rises up from disgruntled resistance leader to kindhearted king) and Brave Celica (rises from devoted to a dangerous degree to more balanced and even braver than before) are more meta in their legacies in that they're wearing their Gaiden outfits but are designed by the artist for the remake (Hidari). For something more technical, their regular promotions or overclasses from Echoes would fit, but I can't complain when these fits arguably almost look better than their default remake fits, especially Celica's.

Brave Tiki almost goes backwards in that she's an adult wearing the same clothes she wore as a child; something like Naga's gown or even Bantu's cloak would probably be more appropriate, given that Awakening-era Tiki has grown up to be quite the spiritual leader after millennia of fear and isolation - the fact that she can be a bit silly at times doesn't deter from that fact either.

Brave Marianne is using a class that has absolutely nothing to do with her character or growth (Dancer), and she's using a random tome instead of using Blutgang, her bloodline's ancestral weapon (This is especially silly if we consider that the main weapon for Dancers in both 3H and most other games is, in fact, swords...). While her default line makes her a Gremory, given her boons with swords, magic, and cavalry, something like a Holy Knight would fit better.

The Gatekeeper was more or less botted into the game. At least we get some serious flexing from the great Akihiro Yamada out of it.

All that leaves at this time is Byleth. I've heard complaints that this Brave Byleth is in Sothis' regalia, and not wearing an outfit evocative of her father Jeralt. Why is she "forced" into this legacy? After all, two Byleths were up for voting, and the pre-fusion, teal-haired Byleth won. Clearly, she was better off as a mercenary, right?

Yeah, no.

Through a career change, learning about her heritage (as messed up as parts of it are), and an exposure to faith, even if cursory, Byleth grows from a listless, unemotive sellsword with no prospects to a teacher loved by their community, and later on an (accidental) spiritual leader. While their opinion on the matter is limited by the lack of voice, Byleth is quite content as a teacher and takes no issue with their newfound leadership as long as they're given some due thanks. She isn't just happiest with her students either, but she's also quite happy whenever Sothis speaks to her, and she is saddened immensely once Sothis vanishes forever.

(Ignoring the fact that this is an S-Support, Byleth is saddened when Sothis vanishes, and here she says she was lonely without her. And lest we forget she cried into Sothis' arms after Jeralt died?)

In contrast, she despises her title as "the Ashen Demon." You know, the same "badass" title that many fans seem to think she'd be better off with?

Byleth may be inspired by Ike, and Jeralt Greil, but they are neither. Byleth's journey is extremely dissimilar to Ike's. And Jeralt, on top of just plain being shallower as a character, is nowhere near the father Greil is, nor would he ever hope to be.

Byleth's life would've been miserable and reductive had she continued to be a mercenary.

[fayesdiary]

What on your thoughts on Ashera

Ok for starters she's immediately off to a great start since she's the only female final boss save for Idunn, but unlike her she has actually agency in the story.

But about Ashera herself, she's great and a breath of fresh air for the series:

She's a female final boss, not a dragon and not even really evil per se, more like a robot who concluded that mortalkind was only a flaw on the world that she had to correct.

Also I love the subversion that the Goddess of Order is the antagonist rather than the force of good, but also that it makes sense: what's more in order than a stale, dead world filled with nothing but statues?

When taken to the extreme, it makes sense that Chaos would champion life in its unpredictability while Order would be antithetical to it.

But also Ashera's existence is sad. She was afraid of her own emotions and power, and so she casted all her emotions aside and basically became a barely alive husk of her former self in an effort to be as impartial as possible. (huh, both of FE's female final bosses are soulless emotionless beings)

And despite her desire to destroy her quite literally chaotic half, she deep down longs to be whole again, she listens to Lehran's pleas multiple times and if he attacks her she won't fight back, showing that she's not completely emotionless.

(also some characters not fighting each other even if attacked is one of Radiant Dawn's best features for storytelling IMO)

And, again like Idunn, if you go out of your way and plan your whole playthrough to get the best ending (even if you have to play the game twice to even get a shot at it), she and Yune become Ashunera once more, and it feels so satisfying.

oh and her magic looks cool af especially in Heroes

[grimmradiance]

(Editing mod here: this post wandered off into chatter about deities in the Fire Emblem series and an irl goddess who got treatment that rings like Radi to me. It's not super duper relevant unless you're hella interested, so I've marked it off with asterisks so you can skip it if you like.)

You know I never actually explained how I think Grimm and Radi relate to each other. I know two popular interpretations are sibling-deities or dual dream deities that had a fight and Grimm got evicted for being Grimm. Mine is sort of...both? And neither.

*

Lemme just explain it by comparing it to a canonical example of the same thing (which probably maybe two people who follow this blog will recognize lol): the deity Ashunera from the two games in the Radiance part of Fire Emblem. (It's got several very loosely related worlds across the series; the two Radiance games are standalone from everything else. They're the ones with Ike if you know Smash Bros.)

ANYWAYS the point I'm trying to make here is that In The Beginning™™™ there was Ashunera, the mother goddess, who gave shape to the world and gave it life and light and all that. Upon seeing that her children had invented war and were murdering each other, she had a mental breakdown and nearly flooded the entire world. (Yes, it's very Genesis.)

She, being possessed of a love of order and peace, decided the best way to keep this from happening again was to ball up all her emotions and instincts into a seperate deity, seal the resultant chaos entity Yune away and fuck off to take a nap for a thousand years, essentially saying "don't you DARE wake me up by fighting a war." That gives us Ashera, a fundamentally neutral deity of order who hates war, and accidentally and/or vengefully fucks over most of the population of the world when she's woken up early by a massive war.

If you play this off with the fact that the name Ashera(h) is thought to (at least in Hebrew) refer to a female counterpart to Yahweh, who was systematically erased from the record by sociopolitical movements deeming polytheism heresy, translating the Hebrew Asherah to "tree" or similar, and Christianity Being Historically Like That...well, for me, the parallels write themselves. I already associate the anthropological evidence for Asherah with the Radiance anyways, because Asherah is considered to be at least loosely syncretic with several other goddesses, much like Radi seems to appear in the religions of other cultures aside from moths.

*

Anyways, this got rambly, but. In my head, Radiance and Grimm were once the same deity. One of light, warmth, imagination, time, and spirituality, in my head. At some point, something happened, said deity had a Moment, and yeeted their emotions and impulsive nature into a seperate moth. This leaves us with the deities we have now. Radiance, the Light, all-consuming like the sun, deity of branching paths returning to a central home and things that last forever. Grimm, the Flame, subtle and pernicious and transient, deity of things coming to their rightful ends, of breaking rules and blazing paths anew and self-determination. The fact that Grimm got syncretized with nightmares is a later addition, partially due to the distinct seperation between his dreaming and waking selves, and partially due to moths seeming to have a collectivist culture, where too much individualism can be scary and dangerous because it puts everyone at risk.

(Bonus: theory crafting of what that deity was called? The word "radiance" has dubious origins; you can follow the etymology back as far as "radius" being used as a noun to refer to wheelspokes and walking sticks and things like that. The word "grim" actually traces back to a Proto-Indo-European word referring to anger or thunderous noises--which, if I'm interpreting this etymology article correctly, means that comparing Grimm to a ridiculous number of mythological figures scans. Which means that they also scan seperately as light and dark deities by etymological roots!

And apparently "dream" referred to merriment or imagination and to things that happen when one sleeps by completely seperate paths. Huh.

Anyways, attempting to keep with the moth deities having dignified names that are still single common words, a few ideas for the pre-split deity..... I'm thinking either Somnolence or Effulgence.)

[se-housman]

Fallen Ike breaks Soren’s heart

Seeing all the fanart of FeH’s Fallen Ike/ berserk Ike this past week has been incredible. They’re all so beautiful and powerful, and yet so sad! 

Ike was careful never to touch Mist’s medallion even before he discovered what it really was. Imagine him making one mistake and then losing himself---all of his inherent kindness and trust---to mindless violence and rage. Imagine him hurting the friends he swore to protect...

To honor Fallen Ike, I give you a preview of a scene in Chapter 33:

“He slashed the tendons in his right hand,” Ike said after a few moments, drawing Soren’s attention back to the present. “So he could never wield a blade properly again. At least, not in his style. Not in real combat.”

“That sounds prudent of him.”

“It’s why he died.” Ike’s voice was low. “That day in Gallia, the Black Knight was looking for the medallion. He gave Father a sword to fight with, but he wouldn’t wield it. Maybe if he’d been able to… If he’d been able to, I know he would have defeated the Black Knight.”

“It is a waste of energy to ponder what could have been,” Soren said, hoping that would console him. “Furthermore, Greil did not die of an old wound to his hand, but because the Black Knight came looking for the medallion. It is that vile bit of bronze that caused this.”

“You’re right,” Ike sighed. “Lehran’s Medallion stole both my parents’ lives. But I can’t destroy it. I’m sure my father would have found a way if that were possible… So I will protect it in their stead. I won’t let it fall into the wrong hands, and I won’t let anyone touch it. I won’t let what happened to me and Mist happened to anyone else,” he finished resolutely.

“A sound course of action,” Soren agreed. “I suggest you keep the medallion’s existence a secret. Tell Titania, and the three of us will include the protection of the artifact in our duties. However, I suggest you not mention it to anyone else—not Princess Elincia, Captain Nasir, nor any of your friends.”

“I know.” Ike nodded.

Soren hesitated a moment, adding in a quieter voice: “And promise me you will never touch it yourself.”

Ike winced as if remembering an old wound. “Father always told me I wasn’t to touch it. Now I know why.”

“Ike, promise me. You must be careful.”

“Of course,” he finally answered: “I promise. Like I said, I never want that happening to anyone else.”

And I never want to see you in as much pain as I saw Greil that day, Soren thought. The violence, the rage, the chaos, and then the blanketing grief—it was a wonder Greil had survived. Soren would die before he let Ike go through the same thing.