NOTICE: I've found this to be a problem, but I won't be mean about it like the magebear. Whims of Fate is a COMPLETED fanfic. That means that alerting it is in vain.

Otherwise, please enjoy!

Fire Emblem: Whims of Fate

“This Faithful Day” (Lyrics written by AquaticIdealist)

“It’s time, it’s time to sit and cry

Remembering... this faithful day.

This war, it’s been a wretched war

My friends, are dead and gone.

My lord, he is a gracious lord

Rewards, piled high and deep.

But, ah! The screams and blood and pain

I try... Try to forget.

The years, the years fly by and fast

My beard... grows ever white.

Now I, I come to sit and cry

Remembering... this faith-ful day!”

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Chapter 1: Bittersweet Memories

“Ah, blood. It’s quite a common sight here in battle. Yet, I lost that sense of fear years ago.”

“Have I ruined myself? Have I become a monster rather than a man? I do not know anymore.”

A greybeard sat in the courtyard of a fabulous castle. He wore a heavy and thick suit of white armor, and carried a long spear in his hand with a purple ribbon attached to the end. He had a sword sheathed on his side. (1) The man had a heavy beard and a grey mustache that his hand stroked from time to time. He was staring intently at a dead body before him. The corpse was wearing a suit of black armor, and was slouched over, as though the deceased man had collapsed from exhaustion before his death. The deceased man had distinctly red hair, a red mustache, and a large red goatee. He carried a long spear of his own in his hand, but his lifeless body tightly held on to the spear, making it difficult to retrieve.

All around the pair, more bodies were piled up, and the green grass that was growing around them was stained with crimson blood. There had been an epic battle here; one that determined the fate of a nation.

A year ago, a nation known as Daein mounted an attack on the nation of Crimea, destroying it entirely. The sole survivor of the Crimean royal family, Princess Elincia, hired a small band of mercenaries to escort her out of Crimea. After a year of gathering comrades and diplomatic posturings with other, more powerful nations, Elincia had gathered an army strong enough to invade and defeat the nation of Daein itself. But, the King of Daein, Ashnard, still occupied the fallen nation of Crimea. Elincia, along with General Ike, the leader of the Mercenaries and Elincia’s most trusted assistant, engaged Ashnard once and for all in the Royal Palace of Crimea, Crimea Castle, and it was here that the battle took place.

Now that the battle was finally over, many of the victorious warriors of Crimea participated in a victory party in which they could drink away the pain of battle and celebrate the restoration of their nation.

But this old man did not wish to join them. He was formerly one of Daein’s top generals, but had joined the Crimean army because he was disgusted with the tyranny and cruelty of Ashnard. Now that Ashnard was dead, and the battle was over, the old man walked among the dead hordes of Daein soldiers, and mourned for each of them. The old man’s name was General Tauroneo!

“Bryce...” Tauroneo groaned as he stared at the dead body in front of him. “Bryce... Old friend, why did you stay with Ashnard? Why did you insist on betraying the honor and dignity you once had as a noble Steadfast Rider? You told me that you were changeless, that your loyalty was unwavering, but what you perceived as loyalty was not loyalty at all: it was cowardice! (2) You were too afraid to leave Ashnard’s side, too afraid to fight as an honorable knight of Daein against he who would oppress our nation! And now, now you are dead. Now, I am alone. Gawain is dead, and his son was responsible for your death. Now that the blood is beginning to dry, I wonder how I can go on, knowing that I have ‘betrayed’ Daein, without either of you to help console and guide me to do what is right...” Tauroneo closed his eyes, and heaved a deep sigh.

“Tauroneo...” A voice spoke from behind him.

“Ike?” Tauroneo turned and glanced at the young man standing before him.

General Ike was a boy of eighteen. Technically, he was a man, but he was very much a boy, still, even after he had witnessed his father’s death, even though he had killed more than 90 people to save his nation of Crimea, he was a boy. Even though Ike single-handedly murdered one of his father’s closest friends, he was still a boy.

“General, you were one of my father’s old friends, were you not? When I fought him, General Bryce there remarked that I had a strong resemblance to my father. Before his death, Father never told me much about his past. Since you claim to be a former close friend of his, I’d like to know everything you remember about him. I know it may be hard for you, and you might have some painful flashbacks, but, please, tell me everything you know about Greil, or, Gawain, as you knew him.” Ike spoke with sincerity.

Tauroneo smiled at the boy, but his heart was full of hesitation. “What do I tell this boy? What do I say to him about Gawain, one of the greatest men I knew? How do I describe my sworn brother to a lad who knows so little about his past? Still, it is my duty as Gawain’s brother to tell his son about him to the best of my ability.” Tauroneo thought. He cleared his throat and began...

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Footnotes:

1. Yes, I know that Tauroneo’s armor is lavender, or a light shade of violet, but that color does not seem right for a General like Tauroneo. I feel that white armor would be better. Just imagine:

Enemy soldier: “AAAHHH!! THE GLARE! MY EYES! THEY BURN!”

Tauroneo: (Lances soldier) Hah, I knew that this armor had more uses than one!

Exactly...

2. If Tauroneo fights Bryce in the final chapter, they will have a special conversation in which (unlike every single other Daein General) Bryce seems to not blame Tauroneo for siding with Crimea. Instead, Bryce says that Greil might have inspired Tauroneo to do it. Tauroneo then asks Bryce why Bryce wants to stay with Daein when Bryce himself knows how evil and horrible Ashnard really is (and how corrupted the current situation of Daein is), and Bryce replies that “some men can change, Tauroneo, others cannot. I am of the latter type. There is no other reason.” (Intelligent Systems, Chapter 29, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance).

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