[Fire Emblem 9] A Promise Almost Kept

[runiclore]

A Promise Almost Kept
Author: Amber Michelle // myaru
Game: Fire Emblem 9: Path of Radiance
Gauntlet Theme: 23 - I’ll whisper sweet words to you, and some of them may be true
Characters/Pairing: Sephiran, Sanaki (platonic)
Warnings: n/a
Words: 546
Notes: I've been dying to use this gauntlet prompt. The implication is romantic, at least to me, but every time I try it ends up fitting something else better.

Prompt:
Fire Emblem 9, Sephiran & Sanaki, appointment to chancellor



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The senior senators promoted Sephiran with all due ceremony, almost as if they were indeed welcoming a new prime minister to lead their council, instead of a servant to be swept under the rug with their child empress, whose public appearances to this date numbered two, not counting his ascension - her coronation a year ago, and an appearance in the plaza on her sixth birthday. She didn't actually speak with any of those important people, of course, being too unruly for polite company. He wondered if they were hiring him to keep her quiet, or function as a new target for her inevitable irritation.

Poor fools. She already loved him and cooed over his pretty hair - if she threw blunt objects at anyone it would not be Sephiran, whose warm lap was her favorite napping spot. You smell like flowers, she said to him the other day. I thought only girls liked flowers.

Nonsense, he said. Flowers embody refinement. You cannot attain elegance without fluency in their language.

Sanaki liked that. Tell me, tell me everything about flowers, especially the red ones!

Red, he'd thought-- how suitable. If she lived past childhood, she would grow to love as fiercely as she raged.

Little Sanaki sat on her throne to meet him at the end of his long march across the formal audience chamber, sitting on a mantle two times too big for her that was spread across the seat of her throne and spilled over to fold and ripple on the marble steps, a shimmering silk lining and soft velvet underneath at the edges. Her short indigo hair was brushed and curled at the ends, held from her eyes by a wide headband he learned yesterday was the Apostle's equivalent of a crown or a circlet, stitched with the likeness of a stylized eye to indicate her prophetic ability. He'd buckled the brocade sandals onto her feet not even an hour ago, and the staff she was supposed to give him lay across the arms of her throne, her fingers curled around it.

"Lord Sephiran of Persis," she said when he kneeled at the wide top step below her throne. She'd wanted to deepen her thin child voice, but to no avail. Then she paused; a faint line appeared on her forehead and he whispered ask me to take the oath, which erased the line and prompted the rest of her speech. Her knuckles were white around the gold staff.

He blinked at her, waited a moment too long to utter the formalities of taking office. They must look like fools, just what the council and half the nobility took them for, but the whiteness of her lips was more interesting.

Afraid? Sanaki?

Of the senate?

His empress lifted the staff with some effort, slid from the seat of her throne-- and the cause of her fear became evident when she stumbled and almost fell.

Sephiran caught her by the hands, steadied her, bore the weight of the staff. Softly, voice pitched for her ears alone, he said, "I promise never to let you fall." It might even be a promise possible to keep.

Sanaki smiled and told him to stand. Together, they faced their adoring audience.


.....................................

Haha, maybe I shuld stop trying for a while.

Comments

[measuringlife.livejournal.com]

What, no using "Promises Almost Kept" for the theme?

I like Sephiran's detached way here. he's trying not to care and failing miserably. he's really too softhearted to go wit this mercy-killing-of-the-world thing.

[myaru.livejournal.com]

Pff, too easy.

He does rather overestimate his own cold-heartedness.