Actions

Work Header

Ultimate Reunion Parties

Chapter 7: Sigurd, Seliph, Deirdre and Julia

Summary:

In Which Kiran Defies Destiny

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Early in the Career of Kiran the Magnificent...

[I am not going to collapse], Kiran thought stubbornly. The books in her arms felt more like bricks, and her head was pounding, but she refused to acknowledge it. [If Alfonse can work through the night, so can I]. Marth's worried stare felt like a tangible thing, and Lilina frowned in concern when she walked by. [I'll sleep later. Embla's ambush took me off guard. People could have died, could die again if I don't step up my game and match them. Why did the weapon choose me? I don't have any formal training, I...]

Her thought process was interrupted when the weight in her arms suddenly decreased drastically. Pausing, she blinked up at a white clad figure who had materialized out of the ether right in front of her. “I think the royal tactician can afford to have someone carry her books for her,” Sigurd said teasingly, hefting the four tomes he had snagged slightly. His almost omnipresent cheer dimmed a bit when he got a good look at her face. “Kiran, you look awful.”

She managed to force a smile, though she knew it looked weak. “There's not enough time in the day. Thank you.” She knew it was pointless trying to retrieve the books or wave him away; from almost the moment she had met him she had known the Heir of Chalphy couldn't not help someone he saw in distress. She might as well tell him to stop breathing.

Sigurd was one of the first Heroes she'd met – she'd called him not long after Roy, Nino and Jaffar. She'd quickly learned that he was incredibly capable, utterly devoted to his friends (which he made easily – his social-fu was kind of terrifying to behold), and wholeheartedly determined to make her smile as often as possible. It was like having a second father, sometimes. And that meant he worried. A lot. Kiran could count on him to bring her hot chocolate when she was drooping, insist she defer patrolling to him or Arden, or take on any number of menial tasks she would normally handle herself like inventory. She wasn't sure if she was embarrassed or pleased that he cared so much about a girl who'd technically abducted him from his world and timeline.

“You should rest.” Sigurd said as they made their way down one of the winding stone hallways to the barracks. “You haven't gone without sleep again, have you?”

“I slept,” She disputed. It had only been a few hours, but it cleared her head enough to make work possible. “I don't have much left to do – the last item on my list is summoning.” She muttered under her breath, “I really hate finding orbs.”

Sigurd chuckled softly. “You sound like Oifey,” He remarked quietly. She blinked at that, he smiled faintly and explained, “My little cousin pushes himself very hard when he feels he has something to prove. Everyone here trusts you, Kiran. Don't hurt yourself trying to keep something you aren't in any danger of loosing.”

“...Thank you.”

They reached Anna's desk and dropped off the books – the commander in chief wanted to review their finances before restocking the armory. They had a number of broken and damaged weapons that needed to be replaced; while personal weapons belonging to summoned heroes seemingly required little care and attention, practice tools and the rank-and-file required more support. Kiran let out a deep sigh – perhaps lying down for a while would be expedient, she thought a bit ruefully – and headed over to the orb box. Sigurd didn't give her a chance to attempt to lift the medium sized container, grinning cheerfully when she frowned at him, and gestured for her to lead the way.

As they left the castle and headed for the hill, Kiran wondered if she would get doubles again. While it had only happened a few times, she had summoned the same Hero from two different timelines before. Corrin – in one timeline born a boy who had remained in Nohr with his adoptive family, in another timeline born a girl who fled into Valla in her desperation to keep her loved ones from killing each other – was apparently a fairly sedate person across the board, thank god, because the resulting freakout had been fairly mild. Kamui – she suggested they call her by her original Vallite name to minimize confusion – had been more curious than anything once she got over her shock. Corrin was more unnerved, but he was still cautiously friendly towards his spear counterpart.

She rather hoped she didn't end up with dupes that often. The headaches and the emotions involved were a bit too volatile for her tastes; even by her new difficult-to-top standards.

Kiran smothered a yawn as they approached the foot of the summoning hill. Oh, her headache was just terrible. She really needed to ask Virion for some of his famous tea when she finished with this. Thank god the hill wasn't too steep.

“It's so quiet up here,” She remarked as she entered the stone circle. Sigurd put the box down at the edge of the rocks before stepping back. “Even the wind seems still. I wonder if it's because of the magic.”

“It might be,” Sigurd shrugged. “Prince Alphonse could tell you, I imagine.”

“Something to ask at some point,” Kiran murmured, taking a gem in both hands and walking to the center of the circle. “Now...let's see whom the dragon gods favor.” Sigurd's soft chuckle rang with the rough scrape of the stone fitting into the summon circle. Kiran stepped back, looked around a few times – it still boggled her mind that she could do this – and invoked her magic once again.

When the light faded, the first reveal was a tiny dragon with rose pink hair and endless enthusiasm. “Can Fae play with you?” “I'm busy at the moment. Though I believe Lord Sigurd is quite available, yes?” “Yay!” Sigurd, rather than being frazzled or even annoyed (Raven needs to lighten up, why not force him to take care of children?), laughed and swept the little-yet-not-little girl up in his arms, letting her 'fly' about the hill as Kiran chose her next stone.

She recognized her second champion off the cuff – he looked quite like his parents, after all. The young man looked her up and down and somehow guessed both her occupation and relative rank in the army. Perceptiveness was a strong trait in a strategist. “I'm Morgan. You're a tactition? May I have access to your notes?” “Certainly. Your mother is looking at them at this moment, unless I'm mistaken.” “Y-I can? R-Really? Thank you so much!”

Donnel stumbled through the gate next, and was more than a little bewildered by the implication that a 'country bumpkin' was a great hero. “You wouldn't be here if you weren't worthy. Magic perceives the truth inside people.” She half wished she'd picked something less corny to say, but the nervous smile he gave her made her less self-conscious.

Lucius bowed gracefully to her, staff in hand, and offered his healing services before she could get halfway through her 'pitch'. Sothe looked about severely, asked where Micaiah was, and strode off with little more than a respectful nod. Gwendolyn gave her a salute that rattled her over-sized armor and asked for a mission. Caeda teased her over her awstruck reaction to the sight of her pegasus. Slowly the orb case emptied out until she had one red stone remaining.

Looking down at the stone, Kiran took a deep breath. Introducing the new heroes always rattled her nerves a bit; she'd been quite shy around people ever since her preteen years. Largely she relied on adrenaline and necessity to direct soldiers on the battlefield, and surrounding herself with good help like Soren, Robin and Jagen. It was pretty overwhelming. She was lucky to have so much good help. Taking a breath, she placed the last stone and exerted her magic.

The flare of white light nearly made her double over in pain. [I have a limit of how many times I can do this in one day]. Kiran was blinking stars out of her eyes as her newest hero stepped forward, wearing a hesitant smile. She blamed her disorientation on her delayed reaction.

“Are you alright?” The young blue haired warrior asked, his familiar face bent with concern.

“Yes, sorry. It's been a long day.” She smiled back at him for a moment before the shock hit her. “Wait a moment...are you Seliph? Of Chalphy?”

He started. “I...yes, that's my name. How did you...?”

“Welcome to Zenith.” She said by way of a response. “Heroes are summoned here from different worlds and different streams of time. Your arrival was preceded by that of some others, so I know a bit about you by word of mouth.” Not a lie; Sigurd, when the topic of his infant son came up, would not shut up about what a wonderful little boy he was and how amazing it was to be a father. Speaking of which...!

“Out of time?” Seliph repeated, eyes widening. “How is that possible?”

“Magic,” She responded with a small grin. “Please, come this way, Prince Seliph. We'll get you situated.”

When the two of them reached the bottom of the hill, Sigurd was handing Fae over to Caeda, who seemed just as fascinated with the tiny dragon as he had been. Given that she had experience with a young Tiki, Kiran wasn't really surprised to see that, or the young Talys princess helping Fae up onto her pegasus for a quick fly about. Sigurd had his back to them in that moment, watching the pair take off; Kiran's heart skipped a few times and she called out, “Sigurd! This is the last of them!”

Sigurd turned around, smiling broadly. “We did well today, Kiran.” He said. “I have to say, it's hard to imagine Fae being several centuries my senior. Dragons are a true mystery!”

Seliph let out a strangled gasp, taking a step backwards not unlike he'd taken a rough hit in a sparring session. Kiran instinctively reached out to take his arm, steadying him. Sigurd, meanwhile, having just noticed the young man beside his charge, started in surprise. “I...hello?” He said with an edge of uncertainty. “You...look familiar...have we met?”

Kiran let slip a small giggle, internally chastised herself and said, “Of course you have, Sigurd. He was just much, much smaller when you last saw him, and he saw you. This is Seliph.”

Sigurd's expression immediately collapsed into shock, then into no small amount of awe as he stared at his now-adult son, looking him up and down as the revelation bounced about his skull. “Seliph?” He breathed. “But...but how? When I left my son just a short while ago...he could fit in my arms still...” He ran a hand through his hair. “I knew there were other worlds, other moments in time, but I hadn't...”

Seliph had clapped hand over his mouth, and Kiran could see tears sparking at the corners of his eyes despite his best efforts. “Father?” He choked out. “Is it really you?”

That seemed to break something inside Sigurd, who seemed as though he might cry himself. “Look at you;” He breathed, “you so big!” Then he darted forward and grabbed Seliph in a tight hug. “My son...my poor son,” He murmured. “Look at how you've grown.”

Seliph let out a thin, keening wail and buried his face in his father's shoulder, clinging to him as though he were no emotionally older than Fae. Kiran's heart wrenched as she watched, realizing that this was the first hug the young prince had gotten from his father that he was old enough to remember. He'd had to grow up without his parents, without a home, without anything she herself was fortunate enough to take for granted.

She paused for a moment, then walked off in Caeda's direction, leaving them to have this moment without interruption. As she walked, a thought struck her...could she find the rest of that family? Perhaps it was a fool's hope...but even then, at least Seliph could return to his time with real memories of his father.

+ _ + _ + _ + _ + _ + _ + _ + _ + _ +

As the months wore on, Kiran had become quite preoccupied. Leif's arrival to Askr had been the only other time she could really spare a thought to 'collecting' the tragic heroes of Jugdral; Sigurd had been ecstatic to meet his nephew, though the poor boy's own parents were nowhere in sight, he was hardly alone with Sigurd and Seliph both hovering around him. Finn had been quite happy to see Sigurd as well; he, Arden and Arya had spent significant time catching up between battles. Lachesis being there was a boon to the pocket of familial joy surrounding the tight knit group. Nanna, while she had more memories of her mother than Seliph had, was overjoyed to see her again.

Now if only I could find Deirdre, Diarmund, Quan, Ethlyn, Larcei and Ulster, Kiran thought ruefully. Ah, but her luck was never that good. She was wishing for the moon at that point.

Yet even as she tried to read the newest reports out of Muspell late one evening, her eyes kept darting over to the box of orbs that consisted of this week's collection. It's not that many. But...she forced herself to examine the map again. This was far from unassailable. She could spare a half hour to go up to the hill, even if it meant enduring another lecture about being careless and softhearted from Michalis, who was currently on watch.

She'd largely learned to tune him out.

Kiran slipped her shoes on, folding the papers closed before slipping out of the room and out the front door. The cool air of Askr swirled around her, tugging at her hair as she walked across the grassy fields. It was beautiful beyond words out here...she had to preserve that beauty, that peace. She likely wouldn't see anything like it anywhere else.

The hill felt like an easy scale compared to yesterday; the cool wind and the odd premonition made the climb easy. [I've been getting 'premonitions' more often], Kiran mused as she reached the stonehenge with the orb box resting against her hip. [And I'm feeling stronger, preforming to extents that I never had at home. Askr is changing me. I had been so afraid of being ushered into adulthood and what that meant...now I feel...serene?] Placing the box on the ground, she removed one of the green stones and walked up to the summoning stone, placing it in the groove.

Stepping back, she closed her eyes and raised her hands. 'Come forth, great hero.' The flare of light was worse in the evening, but she was braced for it. Blinking the light away, she looked upon her newest chosen one...

She was fairly tall for a young woman; her face was warm and youthful, not unlike Kiran herself. Her long silver hair lay freely around her shoulders, accented by her white and purple dress. She was Julia's spitting image...though perhaps that was backwards – that Julia was the living image of her mother, Deirdre of the Spirit Forest.

“I am Deirdre,” She introduced herself shyly, tugging at a strand of her hair in a way not dissimilar to her daughter. “My memories...I'm afraid I don't know any more. I'm sorry.”

“That's alright,” Kiran responded, injecting the same gentle tone she used with Nino, young Tiki, and Linde into her voice. “There is a lot of estoric magic that can inflict amnesia on the unfortunate. I've read about cases, though I've never seen one.”

“Truly?” The hopeful look on Deirdre's face was almost painful. “I...may I see the books?”

“Of course. In fact, I'll bring you to the library. I think I should be able to help you.” This was going to be an all-nighter. Oh well. “This way, Lady Deirdre.” Kiran offered her hand. Deirdre smiled tentatively and accepted it.

Kiran took pains to keep an eye out for Sigurd, Seliph, Julia and Arvis as she lead Deirdre through the labyrinth that was the Order of Heroes palace complex; fortunately, all of the relevant family were either asleep or sequestered in their rooms, allowing her to bring the amnesiac lady to the library with no excess drama. Then they were in for the long haul, turning Alphonse's massive book stock upside down for the old stories and magical healing history. Perhaps surprisingly for a young woman who'd spent most of her life in a secluded forest that probably didn't have much in the way of written word, Deirdre was an enthusiastic reader who's assistance greatly cut down on information Kiran had to keep track of. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to find the solution within one night, forcing Kiran to effectively hide her new acquisition in the library with Ninian and Serra for company while she dealt with the day's work.

Deirdre looked a little overwhelmed by the time she got back; Serra tended to have that effect on people. But she did look happy, and she and Ninian were fast friends.

“Well of course I can do this for you, darling,” Serra said late in the evening, when Kiran finaly hit upon the solution (and likely informed everyone within five miles of this with her jubilant shriek) “It's complex, of course, but perfectly within my capabilities. A lady should excel in all she studies, you see!”

“Good, thank you.” Kiran said, turning toward Deirdre. “This will likely feel very strange at best, my lady. Are you prepared?”

Deirdre bit her lip, a little anxiety in her eyes, but she raised her head and nodded. “I want...I want my memories back.” Ninian squeezed her hand reassuringly, earning a grateful smile in response. “Thank you, for working so hard for me. I promise I will do all I can for you for this.”

“No need,” Kiran reassured her. “It is my duty to help others.” She stepped out of the chalk circle she'd finished drawing on the floor. “Serra...let us begin.”

This was the most magic Kiran herself had ever used in one moment, even summoning. Deirdre let out a pained cry somewhere in the midst of their efforts; Ninian wrapped her in a hug and propped her up so she wouldn't collapse. Fortunately, when the black spell was dispersed (in the last moments, Kiran swore she saw the face of Loptyr. It went by too quickly for her to be certain.), Deirdre was still conscious, albiet leaning heavily on Ninian. Kiran felt a bit winded herself, but she new she'd succeeded seconds later.

“Lord Sigurd...” Her first husband's name slipped from her lips as Deirdre stared up at the ceiling. “L-Lord Sigurd...Seliph...”

Kiran knelt down. “Deirdre?” Ninian asked gently. “Deirdre, look at me.”

The young woman blinked a few times, focusing on her new friend. “Y-Yes...” The haze slowly left her eyes. “My...my son. I forgot...about my son...” She looked ready to tear up. “That man...I couldn't do anything. He took my memories.”

“He caught you by surprise. He'd been waiting a long time for capture you.” Gently Kiran brushed her hair aside. “There wasn't much you could have done.” She smiled. “Would you like to see Seliph? Sigurd? They're here.”

Tears pricked at the edges of her eyes. “Yes. Yes, please...please.”

+ _ + _ + _ + _ + _

“You're slow,” Princess Arya informed him, smacking his leg with her practice sword. Seliph suppressed a wince and doubled back, determined to impress the stately lady of Issach. His father was standing off to the side, chatting with Marth whenever he wasn't calling out encouragement to him and Leif – who was sparring with Joshua. “You're leaving yourself open after striking. Never drop your guard like that.”

Seliph nodded, bringing the sword up again. He'd heard a lot about Arya from Oifey, but words could never quite convey reality. She was an amazing woman, and it was clear where Shannan had gotten his swordsmanship from.

“Lord Sigurd!”

The pretty voice startled him; for a moment, he thought it was Julia. Then his father spun around like he'd been burned, staring wide-eyed at the other end of the hallway. Just as Seliph turned around, Sigurd was off like a shot, seizing a...a woman with long silver hair like Julia in a crushing embrace. A tall woman, a...woman he'd only ever seen paintings of.

He must have stood frozen for many long moments, because Arya tapped him on the shoulder, then gave him a strong, pointed push towards his father and mother. He stumbled over his feet, then scrambled across the small distance and stopping a foot away from the reunited couple.

Sigurd must have heard him, because he released Deirdre right away. “Deirdre, look. This is our son! This is our Seliph.”

Deirdre immediately pivoted to look at him. Seliph swallowed hard over the lump in his throat, which grew stronger at the look of wonder in her eyes. “My baby,” She murmured. “Of course you're my baby. How could I not recognize you?” She hesitantly reached out and caressed his face. “Look at how much you've grown...oh Seliph.” Tears peaked at the corners of her eyes. “I'm so, so sorry...”

Seliph couldn't formulate a response. He just threw himself into his mother's arms, hugging her as if she would disappear when he let go. Leif was hovering nearby, smiling and waving at Kiran, leaning on the doorway and looking quite pleased.

“Don't be sorry, mother,” He managed when he could finally speak. “Just...just be here, will you? Please stay here with us.”

“Mother!” Julia's shriek echoed down the hallway. Deirdre turned slightly and opened one arm so her daughter could join the group hug; Sigurd grabbed all three of them in a tight hug a moment afterwards. “Mother, you're here! You're here! Oh mother...”

Some scattered applause followed this moment from the other heroes in the room, watching from a respectful distance. Ninian was bouncing on her heels, Leif looked both happy and little envious, and Serra let out her noblewoman's laugh while saying that of course things turned out for the best.

Kiran just smiled, walking past them to talk with the heroes outside the Chalphy family. They deserved a day off.

She'd get the rest of her List on another day.

Notes:

Ah...it's been a while, huh? I'm really sorry about that. Real life hit like a truck and didn't let up for...quite a while. But I've got things sorted mostly, at the moment, so I could finally come back to this. Ah, Jugdral, why do you have so many sad stories and shattered families? At least I have Ayra to keep Mareeta company, because who KNOWS when more Thracia characters will be added.

Next up, Quan, Ethlyn, Eldigan and Sylvia! In other words, a very long chapter to make up for my absence. I hope you all enjoyed this one!

Notes:

I managed to beat Lloyd's Grand Hero Battle on Hard Mode two days ago, which was actually the inspiration for this entire mini series. I'm pretty charmed by Lloyd, hence why he's described as hot despite his artwork making him look like he hasn't slept in three weeks. (chuckles)

Series this work belongs to: