hegemonstrous: (*f i don't like your tilted stage)
Edelgard von Hresvelg ([personal profile] hegemonstrous) wrote in [personal profile] doublesmall 2019-10-30 01:14 am (UTC)

[Hm. Well. His reaction surprises her out of her anger. What they did to him? It couldn't be - the memory of another person, who had a "Goddess" planted inside her as an infant. Could it be so similar?]

What did they - ?

[But before she can answer that, the barrier again brings them someplace else. The room you’re in is windowless and pitch black, though by this point your eyes have adjusted enough to the dark. This room is unmistakably a dungeon - a dungeon beneath the palace in Enbarr, a place that is supposed to be your home. The air is stale in here, and though you think you’ve forgotten what fresh air on your skin feels like, you haven’t gotten used to the smell of mildew and blood that permeates these rooms, or the cold, or the sounds of rats crawling nearby, or the clink of chains whenever you try to move.

Nor have you gotten used to the silence from the cells nearby. When you were first brought here, you weren't alone. There were ten others - eight of your elder siblings, and two younger than you. Now, most of them are dead. You lay here, quiet, your hand wrapped around your dagger, as each of their corpses were carried out. You can still hear the ragged breathing, not far away, of one of your brothers. He doesn't sound as though he has much time left, judging from the others. You would hear the occasional senseless babbling from your younger sister in her own cell, but it's been days since she last spoke your name. You aren't sure if she's been killed, or simply succumbed to madness.

There are people around you, but you've learned not to think about them, because your hatred for your kidnappers is too white hot and distracts you from your focus, which is - surviving this. There are instruments, and surgical tools, and vials of foul smelling liquids, and strange religious objects. Something between a medical procedure and a ritual is occuring, but all you can feel is the pain, as you're cut open and your veins, your blood are on fire.

It's hard to tell the passage of time, and you've been through this many, many times before, but this time something is different. This time, you don't feel ill and frail and sore, your hair isn't falling out or turning white from the strain. The fire in your blood remains, and you feel something you've never felt before, in your entire life as a helpless political pawn. You feel strong.

You can hear it in their voices, as well, their excitement, as they draw your blood and reveal the new crest they have successfully infused into your blood. In your previous life, before all of this, you like any good princess had studied the minor and major crests, and you recognize this one, though it has not been seen for centuries. The Crest of Flames, last belonging to an ancient king who, depending on the tale, was a monstrous tyrant or a mighty hero. A far more powerful and portentous crest than the minor Crest of Seiros you were born with, to the disappointment of your father and his court. The bearer of such a crest has the power to shape the future of the continent. And in that moment you know that you will shape that future, a future the monsters who abducted you will rue, a future where your siblings would never have been killed, a future where children will not be sacrificed merely to fulfill the whims of fanatics who believe the empire's heir must be endowed with a powerful crest.

For the first time in the months of your imprisonment, you see the way ahead, and aren't merely clinging to scraps of hope in the dark.]


Edelgard von Hresvelg. [The voice speaking to you is pleased, but it sounds like buzzing in your ears.] You are our greatest achievement. You will shape the future of Fódlan.

[Smile. Don't let them feel your hate, because it is not the time yet.]

I will.

[But it will be a future you will regret. For all of her siblings, and all of the other innocents sacrificed before them, she swears it.

And with that, the barrier and the dagger both fade away.]

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