Sketches from Valencia

["Vignettes From Valencia" didn't sound as good. This is dedicated for Shimizu_Hitomi, aka jadeserpentt, who produced a new and spiffy translation of FE2 this year. Check it out on GameFaqs or Serenes Forest.]

The Sofian language is close enough to the Common Tongue of Archanea that Palla can make herself understood, but the sound of it is disconcerting.

[So, Palla and Catria are in another continent, over the seas to the far west, and despite a totally different "creation myth" and religion, the calendar and language are apparently the same. Yeah, right.]

“You call his name in your sleep,” Catria says.
“Whose name?” Palla is automatically on the defensive; her face already is warm with creeping embarrassment.

[Guess who? Hint: dude from Altea, wears green, carries a lance. No, not Draug.]

No one’s name passes Catria’s lips; the purest knight among the Whitewings does not betray her secrets.

[As I said in the warning, anyone familiar with my preferences knows that I am a total torch-carrier for the unrequited Catria/Marth "pairing." However, I don't think it's quite flared to love, yet. I think that happens during the course of FE3.]

Est falls upon the meal, a brilliantly-colored stew of large black and yellow seeds, red and green fleshy fruits, and some sort of orange root vegetable. Its fragrance is sweet and earthy and spicy, and Est devours it along with handfuls of the flat round bread made with something that clearly isn’t either wheat or rice.

[OK. My personal telling of this tale has Archanea as the "old world" and Valencia as the "new world," with different food crops, different beasts of burden, and different diseases. This turns out to be rather important in my whole Unified Kingdom fanon.]

There is no more. Crop failures have plagued this land for three seasons, and famine now has a grip on the southern half of the continent.

[Game canon]

She is distracted from the hunger in her belly by the inquisitive chatter of Bowy; the young mage has more questions for Palla about her strange homeland to the east. Ah-kah-nay-ah, Bowy calls it.

[Bowy seemed young enough to be openly curious about the strange women from overseas.]

He does not believe in her stories of people who turn into dragons, any more than he believes that the people of Palla’s own kingdom raise small dragons and train them like pegasi.

[Valencia has Falcoknights, Archanea had (until DS) Dracoknights only. Thus Palla, Catria, and Est canonically become both at different points in their careers. There are no manaketes in FE2.]

“The amount of fight in a soldier depends on the food in her stomach,” says Catria. It is one of the many maxims of their training days; in troubled times Catria tends to repeat these phrases as a cleric might murmur prayers.

[X-ref Catria's withdrawal quote in Ch. 7 of Shadow Dragon. Catria is, to me, the "perfect knight" of the Archanea games. Though Palla and Cain come close.]

Est has blossomed since the days of the War of Darkness; she grows like a sunflower, and every month she looks-- at least to Palla’s eyes-- taller, and stronger, and ever more formidable as a knight. Yet still she is a child, and she falls asleep like a child, dreaming away with an expression of easy contentment.

[Digression on Est. She seems young but capable in FE3, and is serious enough about her duties in FEDS even if she doubts herself. In FE2, she acts both hyper and featherbrained. She apparently is about 16, making her the same exact age as Cellica, and whoa baby there is a difference in maturity there.]

The firelight shines in Cellica’s hair and outlines the gilded curves of her bracelets. She sees Est, and a slow smile of remarkable sweetness touches her lips.

[Cellica is pretty, IMO. Very pretty in a way unique to her.]

An arrow likely to be fired not by a man, but by one of the creatures of the dark god, gruesome animated corpses that plague the land like some new form of vermin.

[Y'know the zombies in FE8? This is where they came from.]

Cellica might one day need concern herself with the proper form of address to use with foreign heads of state, but this night is not the time for it.

['Cause she's a princess, see?]

Palla’s own destiny has fallen into a repeated pattern; she seems fated to be in the company of those with the will to attempt the improbable.

[Like that kid back home with the blue hair, the tiara, and that magical dragon-killing sword.]

It took an entire chain of events, of people, of chances, to liberate Archanea, and even those written down in account-books as the enemy played their part.

[Put me down in the camp that says that, cracked as Hardin was in his little rant at the end of FE3, he was totally on the money when he pointed out that Marth's rebellion against Dolhr would have ended pretty quickly without Hardin's assistance. Hardin doesn't get enough credit, IMO.]

By blundering into this Valencian war, Palla and her sisters might be just such a catalyst for victory.

[My Unified Kingdom fanon has them the catalyst for the emergence of "Sirius" in FE3, see below.]

“Now the people have set down their weapons and returned home, and leaders of all nations turn their thoughts to peace.”

[LOL]

Dear gods, what if my best is not enough?

[Cellica's death quote is amazing. All the FE2 death quotes are really impressive in terms of the characterization they convey.]

Now that they know Cellica’s true heritage, Palla thinks not that it is a natural thing for Lady Cellica to be a princess, but of how fortunate Sofia is that its princess is Lady Cellica.

[Cellica is my most favorite female "lord" in Fire Emblem. She's just this combination of strength and doubt, grace and kickassery, compassion and wisdom… she's amazing, and she doesn't topple into cliche. Lyn and Eirika don't quite reach her level of epic heroism, IMO. And her relationship with Alm is beautiful.]

Catria sounds strangely disappointed. Prince Albyne Alm Rudolf… does not fit at all the Archanean conception of a prince.

[Cat's measuring sticks would, of course, be glamorous badass Michalis and graceful prettyboy Marth. I'm having a little fourth-wall busting fun here, because poor Alm wasn't popular enough to get a shiny makeover every other software gen. The most he got was a brushing up for the "Complete" artbook back in the days of the SNES, so he's locked in to a style that looks dated, whereas Marth has been overhauled for FE3, FEDS, SSB Melee, SSB Brawl, the manga, the anime, and the card game. Alm definitely would win a beauty contest again FE1 Marth, though.]

He wears a simple suit of plate armor, less elaborate than those of his own senior knights. Beneath the armor is a sturdy, hearty-looking boy with regular but unmemorable features.

[Given Alm fights in a full suit of armor, he's probably a heck of a lot stronger than Marth. Just saying'.]

Whatever this young hero calls himself-- King Albyne, Emperor Rudolf, or simply Alm-- Palla feels she is fortunate to have crossed paths with him.

[As Shimizu_Hitomi mused on her LJ a while back, Alm's choice in going forward with his own name instead of becoming Rudolf the Second says something about him. I normally find the whole "peasant prince" stereotype tiresome, but while Alm was kept in the dark about his heritage, he's clearly not a straight-out hick. Cellica seems more prepared for her position, but Alm isn't unfit for kingship by any means. Old Mycen did well with them both. Again, to bring up Alm's more famous contemporary, Marth in FE3 comes across as less capable of grappling with the complexities of ruling a continent… and he doesn't have the excuse of being raised as a regular kid in a backwater village.]

To Palla’s eyes, he seems oddly familiar, with the noble profile and curled golden hair of the aristocracy of Grust.

[Yubello and Yumina are fair-haired as well.]

“That’s General Camus!” And she goes so far as to lift her hand to wave at the general, though Palla quickly forces the hand back down.

[I don't know why FE2 doesn't address the plain fact that the Peg Sisters would know Zeke/Camus on sight. But it doesn't, so I'm going to.]

“I have to!” Catria’s eyes flare with something uncomfortably close to the passion of battle.

[Yeah, Cat's showing her own vulnerable spot here.]

“Yes, we did. And what did the rumors say about the Gold Knight? That he washed up on the shores of Rigel, clothed only in a sheet, without even a name?”

[Genuine backstory for "Zeke," hence the sea-burial explanation.]

She remembers the maps-- Abel’s maps-- and Abel’s graceful fingers pointing out where the sea burial need take place.

[Oh, look, it's Palla's mystery man. Artistic!Abel is a mainstay of my fanon; I have him as the cartographer of the Altean crew.]

It does not occur to Palla to forbid them to speak directly with the general.

[So, Cat and Est confront "Zeke" together… a year later, a masked man shows up in Archanea, calling himself Sirius.]

A smile passes between them, from knight to princess, elder woman to younger woman, warrior to warrior.

[Palla and Cellica appear to interact as equals, or near-equals; there isn't the divide that is seen in Palla's dialogues with Minerva or with Marth.]

“I’ll definitely come again!” shouts Est as the three of them ready their pegasi-- swift and graceful mounts with a single spiraled horn, the native stock of Valencia.

[See? Falcoknights. Also, keep Est's statement in mind… and perhaps x-ref my other story "Forsaken."]

“I’m coming home, Abel,” she whispers. “Coming home with everything made right.”

[Sonofabitch goes and marries Est. That would be Abel's first mistake in a string of bad decisions, IMO. Again, the sequel to this is "Forsaken," so we see where Abel's choices lead him. The dramatic irony in this, regarding Abel and the rosy situation in Archanea generally, is pretty thick. Hardin hasn't gone mad yet, but he'll be evil within a year. And then everything else crumbles from there…. ]